Inside Two Minds: An ROTG Fanfic
by jackfrostbeliever
Summary: The third installment of my series. The adventure continues and even more new friends come and go.
1. Peri

I opened my eyes, expecting her to be there, but I knew better than to think she'd come back. Not after I'd been such a jerk to her. I really had been. All she'd wanted to do was get a little breathing room and that hadn't been good enough for me. I knew it. I knew that I could have done things differently, and I would have, if…if what? If I weren't so jealous. I'd been refusing to accept it for the past few days, refusing to accept that I had been a jealous idiot. I let an innocent fairy guy die because I was jealous. Was that very Guardian-like? Nope, nowhere near. Manny told me so. I sat up and rubbed my eyes, looking around the hideout. The floor was blanketed in dead pine needles. How they got there, I'll never understand. We were underground. I stood up and yawned. Nobody else was up yet, which was to be expected.

I went down the hallway on the left and climbed the ladder on the wall. I climbed out the tree stump and breathed in Neverland's clean night air. It was still night, but there was something I had to do. I walked past Terence's grave because I wasn't ready to apologize yet. I walked deep out into the woods and finally came to the beach. I looked out over the ocean and imagined that I could hear her laugh. I was getting desperate now. Where had she even gone? None of us knew. Had she just gone to rescue someone? I doubted that. I sighed and sat on a piece of driftwood. I looked up at the moon. It seemed to be taunting me.

"Well, Manny. Was this what you wanted? Was all that effort that you went to to make us like each other pointless?" I asked.

_Jack, you know that I didn't force Vanessa to leave. She chose this path. I had nothing to do with it._

"The least you could do is tell me why," I replied.

_Why what?_

"Why she left. Why I let Terence die. Why we came to Neverland. Why the hobogoblins attacked. Why you suddenly start talking to me. Why I even went to school. Tell me why."

_Why she left? I'm sure you've already figured that out Jack. It's because you let Terence die. You were just jealous. I'm sure Mickey already explained to you why you came to Neverland. You need their help to defeat him. As for the hobogoblins…I can't tell you why they attacked just yet. And I'm talking to you all of a sudden because you need me more than you ever did before. And you went to school of your own free will. The school choice however…_

"What? Are you saying you made me go to that school?"

_Every day since your first as Jack Frost has been influenced by me. Every big decision, every hour of need, every girlfriend._

"I've only ever had one girlfriend…well…that I can remember anyways. I must have had one before I was Jack Frost."

_You did. But you're right; you've only ever had one girlfriend._

"Okay, that makes no sense. If I was Jack Overland five hundred years ago and I had a girlfriend then, how could I have the same girlfriend five hundred years later? Vanessa wasn't immortal or anything was she?"

_No. But it was Vanessa. The same Vanessa._

"Then how come I don't remember her? I got my memories back from Tooth."

_Not all of them. One tooth has yet to come out, your last baby tooth._

"So all my memories of Vanessa are inside my last baby tooth? Not a single memory of her is in any other tooth? Just one?"

_Correct. It's the back molar on the right side, just in case you'd like to know. Now, if you'll excuse me, Vanessa needs a hand. Heroines can't suffer a headache. Until tomorrow evening, Jack Frost._

His voice vanished and I sighed. Why tell me which tooth had the memories in it? What did he expect me to do, rip it out? I wasn't going to do that. The more I sat wondering what it was that I couldn't remember, the more I thought about doing it. I just _had _to know. It was weird, how was I supposed to get it out? It seemed like a weird idea to just rip it out. I had to know though.

"You've got to be kidding me. You're not seriously going to rip your own tooth out, are you?" I asked myself. I sighed. "I have to."

Took me twelve tries, but I finally tore it out. Didn't hurt too much, but I hoped these memories were worth it. I held the tooth in my hand and waited. Nothing happened. What was wrong? I'd done it once before. What was different? I'd given Vanessa two teeth to dhow her memories before. I didn't understand. I needed someone to explain for me. Someone who understood the workings of tooth memories. There was only one person who would understand. Tooth. I wondered how to get her attention. The only way I could think to get her attention was to put the tooth under my pillow and wait. I trekked back to the hideout and put the tooth under the pillow. It actually took about ten seconds. She came and took a look at me.

"Jack? What are you doing here? And how did you lose that tooth?" she asked.

"Okay, I'll explain everything in a minute, but I have to ask you a question," I promised.

"Um, okay then. What is it?"

"Remember when I got all my memories back?"

"Is that your question?"

"No. Just answer please."

"Okay, fine. Yes, I do remember."

"Well, I tried that with this tooth and it didn't work."

"Well, of course not! The tooth has to be inside the box."

"But I showed Vanessa two stories of my past using just two plain old teeth."

"I know. It has to be inside the box to…sort of unlock the memories. After that, you can access the memories whenever as long as you have the tooth."

"So, do you have my box?"

"Do you think that I could just carry around the tooth box of every kid that loses a tooth?"

"So, you don't have it?"

"No Jack, I don't have it. But if you are just dying to see the memories inside that tooth, I could summon it for you."

"Yes, please do that."

She held out her hand and the familiar gold and turquoise cylinder container appeared in her hand. On the end in front of me was the picture of old me, brown eyed with a mischievous smile. It rattled when she handed it to me because of all the teeth inside of it. She opened it. Inside it was lined with purple velvet. There were little indentations for each one of my baby teeth and only one hole was still empty. I dropped the molar into the last spot and Tooth closed it again. She got a shocked look on her face and then did a sly half grin. Her feathers ruffled in excitement and her purple eyes glowed.

"I'll leave you alone for this one. You're going to love it though. I sense a powerfully happy memory in that tooth." She left in a puff of sparkles.

I touched the front of the box and I was transported to a thick forest in the middle of the night. A village wasn't far behind me. I felt a hand in my hand and looked over, expecting my little sister Bitsy. I got the shock of my life when it was Vanessa. She was wearing a brown dress with long sleeves. I was now walking simply for the fact that I was only there to observe and not change what had happened. I barely kept track of the conversation. At one point I gave her a comb that I remembered carving with a knife. Then I got really nervous. I kept looking down at the ground, and then I finally pulled out a ring and asked Vanessa to marry me. I didn't understand. We walked away back to the village. I told her about my plans to take Bitsy ice skating. I asked if she wanted to come, but she couldn't.

I snapped back to reality with such force, I gasped. I understood now. Vanessa had been there. But how? It didn't matter; I would ask her when I found her. She had to know how she was alive then and still alive now. She just had to. Besides, I had to apologize. I wasn't treating her the way she deserved to be treated. If she wanted to have a friend to take a breather with, she should be entitled, and I would have to be okay with it. I would go find her in the morning, but right now, I was too hot.

I flew out the hatch and looked at the island from a bird's eye view to see what part looked coldest. I saw a snowy forest and sighed in relief. I zipped toward it and landed on my feet in a snow bank. It felt nice. I could have made it cold anywhere I wanted it to be, but I just didn't feel like putting that much effort into it when there was a perfectly good snowy forest already. I wandered around for a little while with my staff resting on my shoulder. Then I saw a girl. She had her back turned to me. She had wings and a hairdo that looked like a beehive, but with a point. Her hair was white, she was pale, and her clothes looked like they'd been made out of light blue leaves. He pants were more like capris and had feathers near the bottom. Her shirt was strapless. How could she not be cold? She touched a leaf and it frosted over. I looked at her with even more interest. Who was this fairy?

Maybe she could sense me or something, I don't know. Whatever the cause, she turned around and stared at me. Her eyes were pale blue. She wasn't wearing shoes either.

"Who are you?" we both asked at the same time. We laughed. "You go first." We said it at the exact same time. We laughed again.

"How about I start?" she asked. I shrugged. "My name's Periwinkle, but my friends call me Peri."

"I'm Jack Frost. I couldn't help but notice that you don't appear to be cold."

"I'm a frost fairy, I frost things. I can't be cold. I can only be hot."

"I frost things too, but I'm more known for my snow days. Kids love 'em."

"Oh, so you can make snow too? We have fairies that do that too, but they carve the snowflakes. They don't actually make it snow."

"So I guess I use the snowflakes you carve a lot."

"That you would. Hey. Have you seen Tink around here? She was supposed to visit me a few days ago, and I just thought that she might be mad at me."

"Why would she come and visit you?"

"We're sisters. Is she okay?"

"Yeah, she's fine. Do you live here?"

"All we snowflake and frost fairies do. Do you live here?"

"No, but I am staying here currently. I'm leaving tomorrow though."

"Why? Where are you going?"

"Where I'm going, I have no idea. Why I'm going…I have to find Vanessa and apologize for being such a jerk."

"Huh? I don't mean to pry, but could you maybe explain what you're talking about?"

"Do you have an hour?"

"I've got all night. Here." She made some chairs out of frost.

Once we'd plunked down in the chairs, I spilled to her the whole story of how we came to Neverland and what had happened once we'd arrived. She asked so many questions that by the end of it, she knew everything, how I became Jack Frost, when I'd saved the world from Pitch, all about Jamie, and even about Manny. She knew just as much as Vanessa did.

"Wow that took a lot of explaining. So what are you going to do when you find Vanessa?" she asked.

"Apologize for letting Terence die. It's the right thing to do." I replied.

"Do you need a friend to come with you?"

"You mean you want to come?"

"Yeah, I do. Oh, and can Tink come? Please?"

"All right, it will be faster with three sets of eyes."

We looked up at the rising sun. I heard a familiar voice calling my name. When Peri heard it, she looked up with an excited smile.

"Tink, we're down here!" she cried. Then Tink flew into our line of vision.

She dived down and tackle-hugged Peri. They laughed. Then Tink looked over at me.

"Where were you?" she asked me.

"I was here with Peri. By the way, I'm leaving with her. Do you want to come?" I replied.

"Um, why?"

"I'm going to find Vanessa and Peri wanted you to come with us."

"Oh, okay. I guess I could come then. Do we need supplies or anything?"

"No, I have to get off this island and find Vanessa. I've got to apologize. Oh and Tink? I'm sorry I let your brother die."

"What? You have a brother too?" asked Peri.

"We had a brother, Terence. He died. It was Jack's fault but I forgave him. Now, let's just go."

We all took to the skies. I followed my gut and hoped that I was right.


	2. Derek's First Kiss

"Vanessa? Vanessa?" I heard someone whisper. I moaned and rolled over. They lost their patience. "VANESSA, GET YOUR ASS UP!"

I sat bolt upright as if on cue. I rubbed my eyes and yawned. I turned around behind me. There was Thimble. I looked around. It was night time by now. How long had I been asleep for? How many centuries had passed? The answer turned out to be two hours. I'd only slept for two hours. I went to stand up, but I was tugged back down by the fingers on my right hand. I looked down and saw that they were completely frozen into the lake, which had frozen over to the camp site. Was that all just because of my hand?

"What are you waiting for?" asked Thimble.

"Maybe for the ice to melt, how about that?" She finally looked down.

"Here, give me the comb in your pocket." I handed it to her. She chipped at the ice for nearly twenty minutes. I got out in the first three seconds, so what was she doing? I touched her shoulder. She kept chipping.

"Thimble, are you okay?"I asked. She turned to face me, but something was wrong. Her irises looked like they were just made of black sand.

"Help me. I need you Vanessa. Derek needs you. Your friends need you. Jack needs you. Thimble needs you. The first step; keep Thimble safe. Promise me you'll protect my daughter." she begged me in the same voice as the one Derek was talking to that one time.

"Who are you?"

"You really haven't figured it out? Very well, I'm Pitch Black. This is Thimble Black. She's my daughter. Keep her past harm. When she offers to go, don't let her! I've been searching for her for hundreds of years. Now that I've found her, I'm being powered by love and not jealousy, or loneliness. I need her safe to stay sane. Just do it for a desperate father, please?"

"Oh…okay…? But…?"

"Just do it." Then Thimble's eyes cleared and they were green again. She stood up and stared at me. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Do you literally know everything?"

"Not literally everything, no. Just damn near close enough. Why?"

"Have you ever met your father?"

"No, why? You have a sudden interest in me. Should I be worried?"

"Not really. Just…let's go." I flew off. I was going to try to see how funny it would be if she chased me, but I didn't get that. Some of the pipes on her boots actually helped her achieve lift off.

When we got back, I went inside to my room and slumped down on the bed. Manny was starting to confuse me. What was wrong with him? He had this weird habit of torturing me all of a sudden. I thought I had the right to choose who I wanted to be with. Manny didn't have to like it, but I still had the choice. But now Manny was pretty much promising me that I wouldn't be allowed to move on. I sat there fuming until a knock came at my door. I opened the door. It was Derek.

"Oh! Hi. What is it?" I asked.

"Can I come in for a minute?" he asked.

"Uh, sure." I opened the door wider and he stepped inside. "What is it?"

"It's about your friends," he said as he sat down.

"Did you find them?" I asked anxiously.

"Well, yes, but the opalvirgins are still holding onto them. Snow's working triple overtime on the forces, trying to get past their boundaries, but their tough. A third of my armada was destroyed on the last attempt." He put his head in his hands and groaned. "I'm trying Vanessa. I'm trying for you. You don't know how hard this is."

"Is it about as hard as fighting a war against the hobogoblins?" I know, probably not the right thing to say, but I felt like being bitter about it. He lifted his head.

"Vanessa, you know that's different. I told you once I would do anything to get what I want. If sending an army of hobogoblins would get me what I wanted, I would do it."

"What did you want? What could you possibly hope to gain from killing all our…I'm sorry, _my_ friends?"

"You, maybe."

"You need to read an article about how to send clearer signals, because all I got from that was that hobogoblins were going to kill me and everyone I'd ever cared about."

"So you didn't care about me."

I stopped midsentence and looked at him in shock. I walked over to him and punched him right in the eye. He fell off the bed and onto the floor. I glared at him.

"Don't you _dare_ say that! I cared about you Derek! I cared more than you could even begin to imagine. You _needed_ me! You needed me and I would have done anything for you. You are ungrateful and evil and broken and scarred and messed up and a liar! You're pathetic and a weirdo and demented and twisted and freaky! You're confusing and you freak me out! I love it all. I love everything about you…and…I think…" I took a deep breath and helped him up. I was slowly calming down. He looked down at me in confusion. "I think I love you."

He stared at me in shock. He opened his mouth to say something, but then he closed it. He did that so many times, he started to look like a fish. I bit back a laugh. He started to say something, but just like I expected, he snapped his mouth closed again. I sighed and hugged him.

"I love that too," I said softly. Then I kissed him. He moved his hands up to my back. After a minute or so, my head started to throb. I tried to ignore it, but it kept building up until it felt like my brain was exploding against my skull. I pushed Derek away with a gasp and fell to my knees. "Damn you Manny." I groaned.

"Vanessa, what's wrong?" I couldn't answer, my brain was having aftershocks. Then the pain lowered and finally subsided. I steadied my breath and closed my eyes. "Vanessa?"

"I…I'm okay. Now. It's Manny." I put my hand to my forehead. I didn't get what Manny's deal was. Headaches. Why was it always a headache? Why not a stomachache? Why attack my head?

"The man in the moon? Why is he giving you headaches?"

"Because he's a jerk, that's why. He's getting back at me for kissing you. I don't hear a problem in there, but to Manny…you and I could never be together."

"I've got Advil."

"This is a magical headache; do you really think Advil is going to get rid of it?"

"I was hoping it would. You're the only girl who's ever cared about me. You're also the only girl who will hang out with me and stay around voluntarily."

"You're okay to be around. Lighten up a little maybe. You still use dark magic, don't you?"

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the book I remembered from Wonderland. It was just a little grubby.

"This was actually pretty helpful. There's a shadow summons spell in there that helped me find someone to help me."

"Pitch?"

"How did you know?"

"Jamie, Thimble, Pitch talked to me himself. What is up with him? He said Thimble needs protection from…something."

Derek looked down and I knew that he knew what she had to be protected from. But it was really late, and I wanted to go to bed. I yawned and stretched. Derek shrugged and left, promising me there would be a nice breakfast laid out when I woke up. I changed into my pajamas and huddled down under my blanket. A cold blast of air swept through my room and I shivered. I got up and closed the window. It was still cold. I closed the door. That didn't make it any warmer. I got two more blankets. My teeth still chattered. I finally up on a t-shirt and tights under my pajamas. I was still freezing. I looked on the shelf above all the dresses in my closet and found exactly what I hoped would be there. It was my teddy bear from the old school. I grabbed its arm and went back to my bed. I clutched the bear as close to me as I could and I slowly warmed up. The bear was enchanted to bring warmth and comfort. My mom gave it to me when I left for the school. As my mind shut off, I realized with a chill that I'd named the bear Jack.


	3. Jack Rambles

Peri, Tink, and I had been flying for hours. We'd seen no sign of Vanessa, and we had no idea where to even start looking. We were flying over the kingdom from where Vanessa and the rest of us had come and I saw so many familiar places and people. There were the ruins of the school. There was the camp. There was Mickey's castle. There was the village that Vanessa and I had made a snow day in. There was little Josey Bryant, still being a trouble maker, shoving snow down people's shirts. There was the lake that Vanessa had died in. There was Vanessa, asleep on the bank, her hand freezing over the lake. I kept flying for just a second and then stopped. I looked again. Sure enough, it was Vanessa, white hair and freezing powers and all. She was wearing a blue sweater, just like mine.

"Guys, hold up! I found her!" I called out over the wind.

"Really? Where is she?" asked Tink.

I pointed down next to the lake and Tink gasped. She started to fly towards her but I held my staff out in front of her to stop her. She looked back at me in confusion.

"I need to go alone. I have to apologize to her for being so insensitive." She nodded in agreement.

"Can I come? I want to meet her," said Peri. I shook my head. I needed to go completely alone.

She sighed and I flew down alone. By the time I got there another girl had woke her up. I smiled, waiting for Vanessa to see me. I expected anything but what I got. She didn't even look at me. It was like I didn't even exist.

"Vanessa? Can you hear me?" I asked. She just stood there, staring at the girl, who was on her knees chipping the ice, with confusion. When she finally said something, it wasn't to me.

"Thimble, are you okay?" she asked the girl. I couldn't help myself. The name was just so weird that I burst out laughing. I was waiting for her to start laughing. I don't know what I was expecting to have happen.

Thimble turned to face us and I saw that her eyes were really a sandy black. No, that couldn't be right because Vanessa gasped.

"Help me. I need you Vanessa. Derek needs you. Your friends need you. Jack needs you. Thimble needs you. The first step; keep Thimble safe. Promise me you'll protect my daughter." Her voice wasn't right. In fact, it wasn't even her voice. That voice was the voice of Pitch.

"Who are you?" asked Vanessa.

"You really haven't figured it out? Very well, I'm Pitch Black. This is Thimble Black. She's my daughter. Keep her past harm. When she offers to go, don't let her! I've been searching for her for hundreds of years. Now that I've found her, I'm being powered by love and not jealousy, or loneliness. I need her safe to stay sane. Just do it for a desperate father, please?"

"Oh…okay…? But…?"

"Just do it." Then Thimble's eyes cleared and they were green again. She stood up and stared at Vanessa. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Do you literally know everything?"asked Vanessa.

I stood there a long time pondering what Pitch had said. The twelve-year-old girl was his daughter? I hadn't even known Pitch had a daughter. Did the other Guardians know? I didn't think so. By the time I snapped out of it, Vanessa and Thimble were flying away. I shot up after them and followed them. They flew all the way to an exact replica of the school. Thimble and Vanessa each flew into two separate windows. I followed Vanessa. I made no further attempts to make her see me; she had simply stopped believing in me. She sat on her bed for a while, staring at the floor, occasionally muttering something that I could never hear. Then someone knocked on her door and she opened the door. I gasped because the person at the door was Derek. She greeted him as though they were best friends, even though he had our friends and Jamie captive.

"Can I come in for a minute?" he asked.

"Uh, sure." Vanessa opened the door wider and he stepped inside. "What is it?"

"It's about your friends," he said as he sat down.

"Did you find them?" Vanessa asked anxiously.

"Well, yes, but the opalvirgins are still holding onto them. Snow's working triple overtime on the forces, trying to get past their boundaries, but their tough. A third of my armada was destroyed on the last attempt." He put his head in his hands and groaned. "I'm trying Vanessa. I'm trying for you. You don't know how hard this is."

"Is it about as hard as fighting a war against the hobogoblins?" He lifted his head.

"Vanessa, you know that's different. I told you once I would do anything to get what I want. If sending an army of hobogoblins would get me what I wanted, I would do it."

"What did you want? What could you possibly hope to gain from killing all our…I'm sorry, _my_ friends?"

"You, maybe."

"You need to read an article about how to send clearer signals, because all I got from that was that hobogoblins were going to kill me and everyone I'd ever cared about."

"So you didn't care about me."

She stopped midsentence and looked at him in shock. She walked over to him and punched him right in the eye. He fell off the bed and onto the floor. She glared at him.

"Don't you _dare_ say that! I cared about you Derek! I cared more than you could even begin to imagine. You _needed_ me! You needed me and I would have done anything for you. You are ungrateful and evil and broken and scarred and messed up and a liar! You're pathetic and a weirdo and demented and twisted and freaky! You're confusing and you freak me out! I love it all. I love everything about you…and…I think…" She took a deep breath and helped him up. She was slowly calming down. He looked down at her in confusion. "I think I love you."

He stared at her in shock. He opened his mouth to say something, but then he closed it. He did that so many times, he started to look like a fish. Vanessa bit back a laugh. He started to say something, but he snapped his mouth closed again. She sighed and hugged him.

"I love that too," she said softly. Then she kissed him. I gasped. Since when did she have feelings for that thing? He moved his hands up to her back. After a minute she pushed Derek away with a gasp and fell to her knees. "Damn you Manny." she groaned.

"Vanessa, what's wrong?" She didn't answer Derek. She steadied her breath and closed her eyes. "Vanessa?"

"I…I'm okay. Now. It's Manny." I put her hand to her forehead.

"The man in the moon? Why is he giving you headaches?"

"Because he's a jerk, that's why. He's getting back at me for kissing you. I don't hear a problem in there, but to Manny…you and I could never be together."

"I've got Advil."

"This is a magical headache; do you really think Advil is going to get rid of it?"

"I was hoping it would. You're the only girl who's ever cared about me. You're also the only girl who will hang out with me and stay around voluntarily."

"You're okay to be around. Lighten up a little maybe. You still use dark magic, don't you?"

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a book. It was just a little grubby.

"This was actually pretty helpful. There's a shadow summons spell in there that helped me find someone to help me."

I stopped listening to try to figure things out. Vanessa had asked Derek if he'd found our friends, which meant either he'd lost them or someone had taken them. Vanessa cared about Derek, the boy who'd sent hobogoblins after her and kidnapped her friends and taken Jamie. She'd kissed him. Manny had given Vanessa a headache for kissing him, meaning basically that she wasn't allowed to have contact with him. It left a little bit of hope for me, I suppose. As far as I could tell, Derek had a little black spell book that had summoned Pitch. So not only was he evil alone, now he had evil friends who were going to crush everyone underfoot. I looked back up and Vanessa was just coming out of the bathroom in pajamas. She settled down under her blankets. I kneeled next to her, just staring at her wondering. Then her teeth started to chatter. She got up and closed her window, then her door. She put other clothes on under her pajamas and got more blankets. She just couldn't seem to get warm. Finally, she got a teddy bear down from the closet. I don't know how that was supposed to help. I finally realized that I was the one making her cold. I was getting all emotional and the room was getting colder and colder. I calmed down and the cold vanished from the air. Vanessa pushed herself against the wall, and I saw that as an opportunity. I slowly and gently slid in next to her. She was already asleep. I settled in and moved her so that it felt like we were close, even though she couldn't see or hear me. Her arm was around my neck and her head was on my chest. I put my arm under her and I could almost feel a connection between us. It was completely one-sided though. I knew that it wasn't possible that she felt anything.

I babbled all night long, telling her stories that I'd never told her before. I knew she couldn't hear me, but I missed her. Nobody else in the whole building could see or hear me. I heard several footsteps pass the door and once a maid poked her head in, but nobody ever said anything. I told her about when we went to the Indian camp shortly after she left. Merida had sung with the Indians. Princess Tiger Lily taught them a song in her language, called Lean on me. When the song was finished, Merida said "Oh, aye. Truer words were ne'er aspoken."

Then the sun started to come up and I remembered about Peri and Tink. They were probably worried sick. I got out of the bed and flew out the window. I flew over the lake and saw a campfire on the banks. It must have been them. Tink was asleep on the ground and Peri was sitting up next to the fire. I landed on my feet next to her. She looked up at me with a smile.

"There you are! We've been waiting for you all night! I was so worried…" She paused. "I mean, _we _were so worried."

"Well, I know where she's staying, at least. There's a little bit of an issue though. She's…with…Derek," I replied.

"Is he that awful boy who kidnapped all your friends and Jamie?"

I nodded. "I understand it about as much as you do."

"Well, what took you so long?"

"I was with Vanessa."

"Did she fight with you?"

"No, she didn't even see me."

"Then what did you do all night?"

"I just…laid down next to her and rambled for the whole night. I nearly forgot about you guys, to be honest."

Peri rubbed her arm and looked down at the ground. She took a deep breath and looked back up.

"Do you love her? I mean, like really? Would you do anything for her? Would you risk anything to get her back?" She had a curious look in her eyes.

"Of course I would. I do love her. No matter what, I'm still going to try to get her back." Peri looked back down at the ground. Her eyes may have been a little sad, but the look was gone before I could register it.

"Well, I guess we should just make sure that she doesn't get herself killed. Are you going to let her know you're there?"

"No, I want her to start believing in me all alone. I'm going to have to ask Jamie not to tell anyone that I'm there."

"Since you're here, I guess I'll get some rest. Good night."

She stood up, walked over to Tink and plopped down next to her. I sat there and stared up at the rising sun. I was making plans as to how to get Vanessa to start believing in me.


	4. Engagement

When I woke up in the morning, I heard a major commotion outside my door. The second my feet hit the ground, I ran to the bedroom door and burst it open. The hallways were overrun with opalvirgins. I groaned. I couldn't ever just get to eat breakfast. I know, I'm in the middle of a fight and all I can think about is breakfast. Thing is, I hadn't had breakfast in days. I wanted some badly, ever since Derek had told me that he would get me some a few nights ago. I slammed my door and tore off my pajamas. I was wearing a t-shirt and tights under them. I pulled a short fluffy black skirt on over the tights. I grabbed the sword I'd gotten from Peter and rushed out of my bedroom window. I flew around the building and found Jamie's room. He was hiding under the bed.

"Jamie, just get on my back!" I shouted over the commotion. I heard a scream and a wet slash outside the door. Jamie heard it too. He scrambled out. I hovered horizontally and he grabbed onto my neck I flew us out the window.

Jamie pointed to Thimble's room. I flew in, but the room was empty. There was no sign of her. I went to Derek's room. He was gone too.

"I hope they weren't killed," said Jamie. He was on the verge of tears, probably scared out of his wits right now too. I had to keep him safe.

"Don't worry Jamie. Nothing's going to hurt you. We're going to get out of here for a little bit," I told him. I flew away from the building, watching as opalvirgins scrambled out of the door and chased us down at unbelievable speeds. Still, none of them could fly, so we had a chance. "We'll find Thimble. Maybe find your sister too. Get you back home. Maybe find Jack. Do you want that?"

I felt him nod. I thought I was getting better at this comforting thing. Jamie and I flew for so long, leaving the opalvirgins far behind us. I saw a cave far off in the distance on the side of the mountain. I was a little reluctant to actually land there, because I could see the glimmering rock mounds outside of it. But I had to get Jamie to safety. If I owed Jack anything even after our fight, it was to keep Jamie alive. Besides I wanted to do that anyways. I wanted Jamie safe.

I flew us into the cave and set Jamie down on the floor. There was still a bedroll left over from the time when we had stopped here before, so I spread it out and Jamie sat on it. Every noise set him off until finally he just started to cry. I rushed over and sat next to him.

"Vanessa, I'm never going to see my sister again," said Jamie. I hugged him close to me just like I'd imagine a mother would do.

"Shh, that's not true Jamie," I said, caressing his hair. "We'll find Sophie. We'll find Thimble. We'll find Derek. We'll find Jack. We'll find everyone. It will be fine."

Jamie crawled up onto my lap and cried on my shoulder. I hugged him even closer. He was scared. That was understandable. I was scared too, so scared that tears started brimming in my eyes too. I didn't know what was going on, I barely knew where I was, and I had nobody with me but Jamie. I didn't have my mom, I didn't have Jack, and I didn't have Derek. I wanted Rapunzel, I wanted Merida. I wanted Hiccup. I wanted Melody. I wanted all of my friends. Pretty soon, I was bawling like a baby too. Jamie and I sat crying our loneliness and confusion and woes away. I knew I was the Guardian of strength, but I still had emotions.

"I wish I was a grown up," said Jamie when he finished crying. "Then I would know how to find everyone."

I drew him back and looked into his eyes. I wiped the tears from his eyes, then the tears from mine.

"No, you don't want to be a grown up," I replied, hugging him again. "Grown-ups know less than kids do about most things. They know more about life, but you hold the secrets of living life. You can be carefree and innocent. Adults can't. That's why I'm glad I'm never going to be one."

"I don't know about that," said Jamie. I was comfortable around Jamie now, so I sang a few bars of a song I knew on the issue.

_Oh, darling, don't you ever grow up. Don't you ever grow up. Just stay this little. Oh, darling, don't you ever grow up. Don't you ever grow up. It can be this simple. Won't let nobody hurt you. Won't let no one break your heart. And even though you want to, just try to never grow up._

Jamie laughed. Then he looked up into my eyes. "Vanessa, can we go look for everyone? Can we go find Sophie and Thimble and Jack and all of your friends?"

"What about Derek?" I asked. Jamie looked over his shoulder as if he were afraid someone would overhear him.

"Derek scares me. Sometimes his eyes go black sometimes and Pitch talks through him," said Jamie. "Pitch has plans. Something to do with Thimble. He wants Thimble for some reason."

"Jamie, Thimble is Pitch's daughter."

"What?"

"Yes. He wants me to keep her safe. I promised him I would."

"Anyways, can we go find Jack? I miss Jack, I want to see him again."

"Sure. He might not be so easy to find. I haven't seen him in days."

"Really? He was in your room a few nights ago."

I looked at Jamie in shock. "He was? How do you know?"

"I passed your room to go to the bathroom. I heard Jack telling you stories. I think he might have cried for a little bit. He just kept telling you over and over again that he loved you and he missed you and he was sorry."

"Okay, that is touching and creepy at the same time," I replied.

Jamie laughed again. I scooped him back up onto my back and I told Jamie to point out Jack the moment he saw him. We flew over the ruins of the school, Mickey's castle, the village where Jack and I had caused a snow day. I even saw little Josey. Then we flew over the camp and the lake. I would have landed on the bank had Jamie said he saw Jack there or not, because I saw Tink there. I'd missed her.

The minute I touched down on the bank of the lake, I was bombarded by Tink and another fairy and Jamie ran over to Jack, which delayed my having to talk to him just yet.

"Oh my God, we have all been searching for you for nearly a week now!" said Tink, hugging me tightly.

"I missed you Tink. How is Merida? And Rapunzel? And Hiccup? And Peter? How is everyone?" I asked.

"I shouldn't know, I haven't seen any of them since we left with Jack," said Tink. Then she let go and pushed the pale fairy towards me. "Oh, this is my sister Periwinkle, though we just call her Peri."

I reached out and shook her hand. "It's so nice to finally meet you. I've heard a lot of good things about you," said Peri.

"Nice to meet you too, Peri." I let go of her hand and looked past her at Jack and Jamie.

Every good memory I shared with Jack told me to hug him and kiss him and forgive him. Then an image of Terence laughing and the thought of how Jack had let Terence die made me draw my sword and charge him with a shout of anguish. I pinned him to the ground by his throat with the tip of my blade and glared at him.

"You dare come looking for me? You have the gall to come into my room while I'm sleeping?" I said in the harshest voice that had ever come out of my mouth. He smiled and all my bravado collapsed along with me. I threw my sword into the lake and fell on top of him in tears. I clutched at his shoulders and pulled him closer.

He sat up and I plopped on his lap. The tears were less now, but I still hugged him. He wrapped his arms tightly around me and stroked my hair, just like I had for Jamie.

"I love you Jack," I said.

"I love you too Vanessa," he replied.

I shifted myself so that I was kneeling with one of my legs on either side of his legs. Then I kissed him. I had missed him more than I would have ever known had I not kissed him then. And he had missed me too, I could feel it in his kiss. I pulled back and looked into his eyes. They were a little watery, but otherwise, I'd seen the look in them before, long before. Before I knew it, I was having a flashback.

I was old me, back before Jack was Jack Frost. We were walking in the street, holding hands. We couldn't have been more than twelve. We were laughing and talking together, the whole rest of the world not mattering. We sat down on a bench together. He'd looked at me that same way, with eyes full of loneliness and friendliness, sadness and happiness, love and loss. The same eyes that he was looking at me with now.

When I snapped out of it, Jack was holding me again.

"Vanessa, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I love you. I missed you," said Jack.

"I'm sorry that I left with Derek. I'm sorry I kissed him. I'd bet you saw that, didn't you?" I asked. He nodded. I kissed his cheek. "Well, I won't be going back to Derek. We are going to get our friends back."

"Hey," said Jack. He picked something up off the ground. We both looked at it and a flash of recognition went across both of our faces. It was the engagement ring he'd given me when we were younger. As a matter of fact, I still had the comb with me too. I took it out and smiled. He saw it and smiled too. "Looks like we have two blasts from our pasts. Let me guess, Manny gave you them back?"

"Yeah. And get this. He took the diamond from the ring and made it completely encase me. That's why I'm still alive right now."

"Wow. That's quite a story. Now, please stand up," replied Jack. I did so. He got down on one knee and held the ring up to me. "Vanessa, I would like to ask you, again, to be my wife. I don't want anything like this to ever happen to us again. We won't ever be separated again."

I smiled and laughed. "Yes. I want the same thing Jack." He slid the ring back on my finger, from which it had somehow fallen off of when I was on the bank.

Then I saw a bright white flash and had to close my eyes. When I opened them again, Jack and I were standing in Manny's house. There was Manny smiling over us.

"Finally. All of my hard work has paid off, but not in full," said Manny.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"The book that Jack read to you had all of the answers. I brought Jack back as a Guardian and preserved Vanessa in a diamond. I made Jack a hero and brought back Vanessa. I made Jack go to Vanessa's school and I made Vanessa like him. I made Vanessa feel when there was nothing to feel and feel nothing in the midst of emotional turmoil. I made Vanessa a Guardian. I tried everything I could to keep you two together, and all for a purpose," said Manny.

"For which purpose?" asked Jack.

"Your daughter will be the savior of the kingdom. Only the offspring of two young Guardians would have the kind of power that will be needed."

I don't know whose face was redder, mine or Jack's. I mean, we'd just gotten back together, now we were going to have a kid together? The thought made me want to vomit with mortification. I could tell Jack felt the same. I mean, there probably was one instance in which I could imagine Jack and I having kids together, but to hear it come from the mouth of Manny…It just felt like an invasion of our privacy for some reason.

Manny burst out laughing at our faces, which shocked me. I don't think either of us thought that Manny even had emotions.

"Well, I'd best send you back; I just had to tell you that. Goodbye," said Manny.

One second we were in Manny's house and the next, back on the bank of the lake. Jamie was staring at us. It took us a second to recover from the embarrassment and then we were fine.

"All right. Let's go back to Neverland. We need all the help we can get to save our friends," I said.

They all nodded. I put Jamie back on my back and we all took to the sky, our eyes set on the second star to the right.


	5. Rescuing the Princesses

We flew to Neverland as fast as we could. I was glad to see Jamie again. The person that I couldn't help turning to look at just to make sure she was still there was Vanessa. I couldn't believe that she had forgiven me. She'd started to believe in me all on her own. I was never going to mess up in such a way that she was going to leave me again. I'd missed her kiss, her touch, the way that she'd always known exactly what to say to make me feel better, even when she didn't know I was feeling upset. When Manny had taken us both to his house and told us we were only together, well, he only forced us back together because our daughter was going to save the kingdom…well, I couldn't help wondering what it would be like if I was the father of Vanessa's child. Would I be a good father? I would try, at the very least.

We reached Neverland before mid-afternoon. We raced back to the hideout and exactly what I expected to have happen happened. They all fell at her feet, and Rapunzel, Merida, Kida and Melody all tackle-hugged her. I snickered at her reaction just before she hit the ground. The look on her face said "Oh God, they're going to kill me." I think there wasn't one girl in the room that didn't cry. Peter, Hiccup, and I just stood to the side and watched. It was actually funny, really.

"I missed you all!" exclaimed Vanessa.

"Then why did you leave?" asked Melody.

"I was just mad. Please forgive me," replied Vanessa.

"We're just happy that you're safe," said Rapunzel.

"Hey, is that an engagement ring?" asked Merida. Vanessa looked over at me and smiled.

"Yeah, it is. We're engaged, But get this, we already were," said Vanessa.

"What do you mean?" asked Melody.

"Turns out that I was inside a diamond for three hundred years. My fourteenth birthday was the day before Jack became Jack Frost. Manny put me in a diamond because…" Vanessa's cheeks went red and I knew she was going to tell them. Mine went red as well. "Jack and I both had to be Guardians and a married couple, because the daughter of two young Guardians, like Jack and I, is going to save the kingdom."

"So… you're telling me that… not only are you and Jack going to sleep together… but Manny already knows about it? Does he know… details? Because that would make him a pedophile. Or a pervert. One or the other," said Rapunzel.

"I hope he doesn't know details, that would be disturbing," said Vanessa. She groaned. "Thank you very much Rapunzel, now that image is seared into my eyelids."

I laughed. I think next to everything is funny as long as I'm in the right mindset. Hiccup looked over at me and raised his eyebrows. That was the worldwide signal for "Really?" I nodded. He whistled and I punched him on the arm. Funny thing about Hiccup, ever since getting together with Merida, he'd become less shy and more sure of himself. I was glad of that, because now he acted like a dude. Peter and Wendy were just standing around, wondering what they should do or say. I thought it best to end the girl-wide weepfest. I nudged Jamie with my elbow.

"Vanessa? Your friends are waiting for us," said Jamie. All the girls got off of Vanessa and brushed off their skirts. Merida went over to Hiccup and kissed him on the cheek, for what reason, I'll never know.

Vanessa and I talked it over, but neither of us had any idea where our friends were. Apparently Snow was still alive and Vanessa didn't know where she was either. Derek was missing too, but I honestly didn't care. Jamie had a massive crush on the Thimble girl I remembered from the lake, and she was gone too. So many people were gone.

"How about we start small with Thimble and Snow?" I suggested.

"And Derek," said Vanessa.

I was about to object, but then I remembered that that was why she'd left me in the first place, because I'd been a jealous idiot about her spending so much time with Terence. I sighed.

"And Derek," I agreed reluctantly. Vanessa's eyebrows lifted in surprise. She smiled and leaned towards my ear.

"Thank you," she whispered. I took the opportunity to hug her and kiss her on the cheek.

Peter equipped everyone with a sword, except Merida, who took a bow. Tink gave us a refill on pixie dust, except for Vanessa and I. Jamie thought it was really cool that he could fly. Vanessa looked a little relived that she didn't have to carry him again. So, armed and unsure where to go, we went back to the kingdom. No one really knew what we were doing besides saving people. We were going to save people. Good thing Vanessa was with us, because we wouldn't have even known where to start. She led us to the replica of the school.

"There were a bunch of opalvirgins here earlier, but they appear to all be gone now," said Vanessa. "I say that we check the barracks first. I didn't get to check them earlier today."

We flew around behind the school and Vanessa landed on her feet. She ran inside the tent, but there was nobody in there. So it appeared. I heard a tiny whimpering coming from under a barrel. Jamie, Vanessa and I all stepped forward. Jamie lifted the barrel up and we all saw a girl around Jamie's age. She had auburn hair and was wearing a brown nightgown. Jamie saw her and gasped. Then he fell to his knees and wrapped his arms around her, and she did the same.

"Thimble! I am so glad that you're alive!" exclaimed Jamie.

"I thought you were dead! I thought everyone was dead!" exclaimed Thimble in an Australian accent.

I looked at Vanessa and raised an eyebrow. She mouthed "I'll explain later." I shrugged. We gave Thimble a sword, some pixie dust, and kept going. Vanessa found Snow by a pond in the woods around the school. There was still no sign of Derek. I was kind of glad of that, but I made myself sound upset about it. There was good that came out of it though, we found the tower where our friends were imprisoned. It looked roomy. What didn't look so roomy were the battlegrounds that we'd have to fight on. It was swelled to bursting with opalvirgins.

"Okay, this should be simple. All we have to do is free the other princes and princesses. Our numbers will be increased. Not to match theirs, not even close, but it should suffice," said Snow. Somehow, warrior Snow scared me a lot more than talking to birds Snow.

We flew unnoticed over the opalvirgins and landed on the roof of the tower. Snow was going to cut a hole in the roof, but Thimble was having none of that. She just melted a hole in the roof and we dropped in. A couple girls screamed. Then they looked relieved.

"Vanessa!" exclaimed Giselle. She tackled her and I held back a laugh.

All the other princesses either started laughing, crying, or kissed someone on the cheek. I got eight kisses on the cheek.

"Okay, okay! Just calm down. We have a plan to get everyone out of here. We're gonna give you a sword," said Vanessa.

"Wait! Just…think for a second," said Belle. She turned behind her and grabbed a book. "I'd just like to know how you plan to give all eighteen of us a sword. I mean, there are only so many swords, and some of us don't even know how to fight."

"How many of you know how to fight?" asked Merida. A few hands went up, Mulan, Belle, Aurora, Aladdin. "How many of you can use magic?" Giselle, Cinderella, and Tiana raised their hands. "Och, that'll never do. How many of you know where Mickey is?" Every hand went up. "Where is he?"

They all moved out of the way and there he was, sitting on the ground shaking, muttering to himself. I flew over and looked him over. He didn't look the same as before, like back at his castle. He looked deteriorated, as if the situation had leeched all of his strength away. Vanessa gasped and flew over after me.

"Oh my God, this isn't right. What's the matter?" she asked Mickey.

"Gerald…he tells me the secrets of the world. He tells me the sacrifice that will have to be made," he looked up into Vanessa's eyes. "You shall have to make the biggest sacrifice of all, if you are to remain good."

"And, happy birthday to me," muttered Vanessa after a moment.

"It's your birthday?" I asked. She nodded. "Well, I guess this killed it, didn't it?" She nodded again. "Oh, well, what can you do?"

"Mickey, what sacrifice will I have to make?" asked Vanessa, putting her hand on his shoulder.

"I believe the more accurate question would be what you are willing to sacrifice to do the right thing." asked Mickey. Her eyes widened, like she recognized that question. "Think it through, for later."

She backed away, a glassy look in her eyes. I looked down at Mickey. "Are you going to be able to help us or not?" I asked.

"Help you? No, I will not be able to help you. Will I be able to fight alongside you? Ah, that is the question. I will be able to fight with you," said Mickey. "And. as for weaponry, there's a huge store of weapons under the floorboard, under the bed."

Snow pushed the bed out of the way and pried the floorboards up with her sword and revealed a huge collection of every kind of weapon imaginable. Even a slingshot. I couldn't believe that, a slingshot. What were we going to do, poke them in the eye? I didn't need a weapon, I had my handy dandy staff on hand constantly. The people who had come from Neverland all had swords, so we just had to equip some people. Some of them didn't even take weapons, like Pocahontas and Belle. They wouldn't be fighting with us. Belle knew too much, she was probably the most valuable hostage here. Pocahontas was more of a medic than a fighter, so she would just stay behind with Belle. We were about to burst through the window, but I turned to Vanessa first.

"Happy birthday, Vanessa. Your present is another fight," I said. She smacked me upside the head. We then burst through the window and hit the ground running.

Vanessa went off in a completely opposite direction than me, but Hiccup was hot on my trail. We went over to the left and hit six opalvirgins faster than they could blink, which was an amazing feat for Hiccup, based off of his size alone. I probably didn't look like the kind of guy either, but I was, now anyways.

Not many of us were actually making very much progress but Mickey. He was taking out scores of opalvirgins just by waving his hand. He probably could have won the war all by himself, but he wasn't going to keep that up for too much longer. Giselle was pretty much useless right about now. She was just sticking behind Merida, hoping that she wouldn't have to use her sword. While she had me distracted, an opalvirgin knocked me off of my feet. I slid back just in time for the swing of the sword to cause it to get lodged in the ground in between my legs. Hiccup stabbed upwards and I rolled out of the way. I flew up above the battle and shot blasts of ice over any opalvirgin I saw. But there was something off. I saw a girl, scarcely older than Giselle, who was eleven, fighting against us. She was holding back, trying to make it look like she was giving her all. When Giselle was on the ground, the girl's sword tip against her chest, the girl ran in the opposite direction. I wanted to tell Vanessa to leave her alive, but I didn't see Vanessa. I decided to get Merida to take her inside. I flew next to her.

"What is it?" she asked, taking out three opalvirgins.

"There's a girl fighting against us," I said, zapping one coming from behind her. "I need you to take her inside."

"Dead?" she asked, confused.

"No! Alive, you weirdo!" I exclaimed. She nodded and fought through the crowd to get to her.

Soon, we'd driven the last dozen or so opalvirgins back into the woods. Hopefully they'd stay gone, but we couldn't wait around to find out. I went back into the tower to get help to the little wounds that I had gotten. Pocahontas was busy treating the ones with broken bones and such, so I just grabbed a band-aid and stuck it on my cheek, where I had gotten a good slice. I'd had a bunch of other cuts and even a few burns, but they were all gone now, no scars to even prove that I'd gotten them.

Now, for the girl. She was sitting against the wall. She had a long cut running from her wrist to a little ways past her elbow. I grabbed a roll of gauze and went over to her. She seemed scared; she gasped and pressed herself against the wall. When I knelt next to her and took out the gauze, she flinched, like I was going to punch her or something.

"It's okay," I said, "I'm not going to hurt you. You're hurt."

Her eyes were still wide with fear, but she let me take her arm and wrap the gauze around it. She slowly moved away from the wall, but she was still wary of me. When I was finished, I stuck a few safety pins on the bandages to keep them in place. Then I stood up and reached for her hand. After a moment, she took it and I sat her in a chair.

"Can you tell me your name?" I asked.

"T…Tamara. Tamara Blitz," said the girl.

"From the way you look, I'd say you're not from around here," I replied. Her skin was dark, and her eyes were as well, a deep brown. Her hair was black, and in what looked like hundreds of tiny little braids. That wasn't something girls did with their hair in this kingdom.

"No, I'm from Tamriel, it's far from here," said Tamara. "I was kidnapped and sold to the opalvirgins to fight you. I never wanted to though, which is why I didn't kill that girl."

"She's probably very grateful," I replied. "Don't worry. You're safe here. Go get Pocahontas to give you some medicine, or something."

She obliged happily. I turned to Merida, whose left arm was in a sling.

"Where's Vanessa?" I asked urgently.

"I don't know. None of us have seen her yet. She didn't die, we've already checked the bodies, and she wasn't taken, because, let's face it, she's Vanessa. She's just vanished," said Merida.

That got me panicked. Not dead or prisoner, just missing. That didn't sound like the Vanessa I knew. I went outside and searched for her until the sun went down. I just had no idea where she'd gone. I went back to the tower, promising myself that I would find her tomorrow. Maybe…Hopefully…


	6. In the Pit

So there I was, at the bottom of a pit. A simple, dug out pit covered with vines and leaves that they use all the time in cartoons. It was the simplest trap that I should have seen right through. But like an idiot, I sprung it and ended up in a pit. Well, at least I wasn't alone, although considering the company; I thought I might as well have been. See, the other person in the pit was Derek.

"Vanessa, is that you?" asked Derek when I hit the bottom.

"Derek? What are you doing down here?" I asked.

"I came earlier this morning, but…well, you might be able to guess what happened," said Derek.

"Derek, I have to tell you…Jack's back," I said, feeling slightly ashamed.

He looked at me. From the dim light coming from the top of the hole, I could see his face. He looked pained and shocked all at the same time. The look on his face made me feel like I had done something wrong. Like I had taken his heart, torn it out of his chest, and made him eat it or something.

"You went to Jack? After what he did to you?" asked Derek, sounding like he couldn't believe it.

"I forgave him. Just like I forgave you Derek," I replied.

"Did I kill your friend?"

"Yes, actually. And Jack just refused to help Terence. You just outright murdered over twenty of us."

"How many times do I have to apologize for that?"

"You don't, I forgave you."

"Well, you sure like to keep bringing it up."

"Just leave me alone."

"Gladly."

He pulled out his dagger and I gasped. I scrambled, trying to get up the wall, but he rolled his eyes.

"The knife isn't for you Vanessa, it's for me."

I looked at him in confusion. "What do you mean it's for you?" He tossed the knife at my feet and knelt down in front of me.

"Do it. You'll get to finally be rid of me. I won't get in the way of your relationship with Jack. I'll never hurt you again. And maybe I'll be granted with glorious freedom from the cruelties of this world."

I realized with horror that he wanted me to kill him. He wanted me to kill him because he was a burden and sick of life. I felt tears burning in my eyes, threatening to spill over my cheeks and drop to the ground. I stood against the wall, staring from the dagger to Derek to the spot of light at the top of the hole, the lump in my throat growing bigger and bigger in my throat. Was this what Mickey had meant? Was I to sacrifice a life to save a love that would one day save the kingdom? I hoped against all hope that it wasn't the right sacrifice, that this was just a bump in the road. When almost three hours had passed, Derek sat up and looked up at me. He saw in my eyes that I wasn't going to do it. He reached out for the dagger and snatched it up in his hand.

"Watch or not, I really don't care. As long as I'm not alone when I go, I can go in peace," said Derek. He took a deep breath and was about to plunge the dagger into his heart when I flew at him and grabbed the dagger. I stabbed it into the dirt wall of the pit and clung onto Derek, the tears finally spilling from my eyes.

I couldn't stand by and meekly let him die. I had loved him once before, no matter what kind of magic Manny used to make me think otherwise. Derek may have been scarred then, but I had done this to him. All he'd wanted was for me to go to a dance with him, but Manny got in the way, making me kiss Jack. He knew that I would start to cry. He knew I would run to the gazebo. He knew I would find Derek there. He knew Derek was going to ask me to that dance. He knew I wouldn't be able to say yes. He probably knew Derek would fake his death and run to Pitch's deception. He'd known everything all along and yet hadn't stopped any of it from happening. He was supposed to be guarding children. Derek, although fourteen, still qualified as a child. Manny and I were both responsible for pushing the scarred boy over the edge.

"Derek, I'm sorry. This is all my fault. If only I had just said yes to go to that dance with you none of this would have happened," I said through my sobs.

"How could any of this be your fault? I made everything complicated. I ran to Pitch when I knew what he'd done. I'm the problem. I need to be gone," said Derek, stroking my hair.

"No! That isn't true!"I exclaimed. "This is all Manny's fault."

"The man in the moon? Please Vanessa, he guards children. How could he be responsible for all of my problems?"

"That day in the gazebo, when you wanted to ask me to that dance, I wanted to say yes. There was a little voice in the back of my head that told me to say yes. Manny was controlling me, making me cry when there was nothing to cry about, making me feel nothing when everyone else was crying. When they told me you were dead, I didn't shed a tear until almost half an hour later, and all because Manny wanted me to get to know Jack. He's been controlling my emotions ever since the day Jack showed up."

"So you don't really love him?"

"No, I do. Just…I would have been with him sooner or later, but Manny needed sooner. All of this is happening for a reason. He needed you to run to Pitch. He needed us to fight the hobogoblins. There's a bigger threat coming. All the pieces will fit into place the moment that bigger threat comes along."

"So, I'm supposed to be the bad guy? Well, I'm nobody's puppet. Be like Merida. Make our own fate." He reached for the dagger in the wall, but I pushed his arm back down.

"Derek, maybe making your own fate isn't such a good thing. I was supposed to make a sacrifice. I don't know what kind of sacrifice, but I will have to make it."

"Is that really so good? I've sacrificed everything I had, everything I am, because of you, and yet you don't even love me."

"That is not true."

"You told me moments ago that you loved Jack. You can't have it both ways Vanessa. Either you love me, or you love him."

"Derek, I don't…"

"No excuses. If you want him, fly away and leave me to my dagger. You want me, we both leave together and you break up with Jack."

"But…Derek, Jack and I were supposed to have a daughter who will save the kingdom someday."

"If you loved me, the kingdom would be nothing to you. You'd trade anything to keep me in your life."

So this was the sacrifice Mickey was talking about. Derek or the fate of the kingdom? What was more important? I guarded the strength of children all over the world. I could make him strong again. All I had to do was say yes. But how could I do that with the kingdom on the line? Being a Guardian wasn't fair. There's no room for choosing both, you have one or the other. So, with tears in my eyes and the future of the kingdom cast aside, I kissed Derek. We held onto each other and I could feel him growing stronger. Really, I could. I can sense stuff like that. Just to be cool, I made a tie out of the wonder sparkles like he'd been wearing on the first day I met him, blue with black stripes. I put it around his neck and smiled.

"There. Now, you have to promise me Derek. You have to stay away from Pitch and dark magic and everything else like that. And your dagger is never going to solve any of your problems. Can you promise me you'll stay away from it?"

"I'd promise you anything Vanessa." He kissed me again. I flew out of the pit and threw a rope down for Derek to climb up. When we were at the top, we ran for the tower. I flew up through the window.

The battle had apparently gotten heated while I was sitting in a pit. Merida's left arm was in a sling, and Hiccup's good leg was in a cast, making it no longer his good leg. Technically speaking, he didn't have a good leg anymore. There was a dark girl I didn't recognize, with her black hair in hundreds of tiny little braids. She had a bandage all up her arm. I didn't see Jack, but the rest of them finally noticed me. Merida ran over and wanted to hug me, but she thought better of it before she lifted her arm.

"Thank the Lord! Jack's out looking for you. Second time today," said Merida.

"What time is it?" I asked. It was dark outside and the moon was out.

"Full past two in the mornin'," said Merida. "Oh, so be quiet, because a lot of the girls are sleeping."

"Okay, but could I borrow a rope? Derek's down there," I replied. Merida looked livid.

"If there were, I wouldn't tell you about it. He kidnapped all these girls, I don't know what would happen if we brought him up here," said Merida.

I looked around for Jasmine, she always knew what to do in circumstances like this. When I'd searched the room four times, I realized she wasn't there. I turned to Merida.

"Where's Jasmine?" I asked.

"She fell in battle. Why do you think I don't want him up here? Aladdin would kill him! For that matter, so would almost everyone, including me."

"You guys can't just put it aside for two minutes?"

"No! If I forgive him now, what's the point of even staying? I would be lying to myself and so would anyone who forgave him. Including you."

"What?"

"You hate him. I can see it burning in the back of your mind. Anything that you say or do with him is all fake. He means nothing to you! Admit it!"

"He means something to me!"

"Would you trade his life for Jack's?"

That question made me pause. What if I just had? What if saving Derek meant losing Jack forever? If that was true, maybe what I'd just done was a mistake. If Jack found out…I didn't even want to think of what might happen.

"Merida, what should I do with Derek?"

"Kill him."

"Meri!"

"What, you didn't want the truth? Fine. Send him back to his fortress."

That actually wasn't a bad idea. I flew out the window and landed next to Derek.

"I don't think it's a good idea for you to go in there. Maybe you should just go back to your base."

Derek looked angry. "Well, I guess I'll be killing myself then. Goodbye." Then he turned around and stalked away. I wanted to stop him, but I knew I couldn't.

I flew back up into the tower. Merida seemed happy that Derek wasn't with me. She settled down for bed and I sat up waiting for Jack. He came almost two hours later. He probably wouldn't have known it was me except for the fact that I was making random stuff out of wonder sparkles and then turning it back into sparkles, repeating the process again and again. When he saw me, he ran at me and scooped me up in a bear hug. I hugged him back, happy that he was okay.

"Where were you?" asked Jack.

"I fell in a pit. But I'm not hurt," I said.

"Thank God. So, what happened?"

"It was that stupid simple trap from all those cartoons. You know those ones they cover with leaves to make it look like there's nothing there. Yeah, I can't believe that I fell for that." Jack laughed.

"Well, I found some stuff out. Like what we're going to face in a few days. And the worst part is, the only way to get rid of it is with a sacrifice." I gasped. This was important. I settled down as he told me everything he'd found out.


	7. Queen Nuvola

There I was, lying on a blanket on the floor with another blanket over top of me, Vanessa asleep on my chest, my arm around her. I was so glad that she was okay, especially after she went M.I.A for about four or five hours. While I was out searching for her, I ran into a bunch of snags, but I found someone to help out. Her name was Sally, and she scared the crap out of me when I first met her.

No offense to her or anything, but she was kind of freaky. She was tall, pale, and had red hair. She wasn't exactly what you expect to see in the middle of the night. To be completely honest, I was flying by and when I saw her, I fell and screamed.

"It's alright," said the girl. "Everything is fine." Her voice was calm, and surprisingly soothing considering her appearance.

She was covered in black stitches, like they were holding her together or something. The weirdest ones were on her cheeks. They went from the edges of her lips to the sides of her head. Her eyes were huge, big and brown. She must be able to do some awesome puppy-dog eyes. She reached out a hand to me and helped me up. Her hand didn't feel like a real hand, more like I was squishing a teddy bear.

"Are you okay?" asked the girl.

"Me?" I asked. "What about you?"

Her dress was made of what looked to be leftover rags sloppily stitched together. She still managed to look pretty in it. She had normal brown shoes on, but they looked worn and old, maybe she was the fourth or fifth person to wear them. Her neck was long too.

"Yes, I'm fine. Why do you ask?" asked the girl.

"Well, you look like you were hurt or something," I replied, leaning on my staff.

"Oh, no. I'm fine. You're the one that just fell out of the sky."

"Okay. Hey, what are you doing out this late anyways?"

"I could ask you the same question. I won't be so rude as to even consider it, but it is questionable."

"Oh, I'm out looking for my girlfriend. It's nothing too major. Unless she's dead, but her friends and I refuse to think like that."

"What does she look like? Maybe I've seen her."

"Well, she looks like me, except she's a girl."

"That doesn't narrow it down very far."

"How many girls with white hair and pale skin do you see around here?"

"Actually, a lot more than you'd think. Look up."

My eyes followed her finger up into the sky, and I almost fell over again. Way up in the sky, there was what looked like an island made of clouds. I saw tiny parts of buildings that must have been the tallest ones on the island. Floating around were a bunch of white figures that must have been people or something. The ones with billowy hair must have been girls, and the hair was white. So she really did see a crapload of girls with white hair and pale skin.

"Never mind, you probably never saw her."

"Well, what's her name? I could ask around for you."

"Vanessa. Vanessa Frost."

Sally gasped. "_The_ Vanessa Frost? As in the newest Guardian and bearer of total awesomeness?" I chuckled a little bit.

"Yeah, that's her. Let me know if you see 'the bearer of total awesomeness'. Tell her I was looking for her."

"You should talk to the Cloud Queen. It is said that she knows everything. Not the way that a princess named Thimble knows everything, because that is just generic stuff. The Cloud Queen knows all, past, present, and, most importantly, future."

I was about to fly away before she said that. "Like, literally everything? Even what I wore on my fourth birthday? Because I don't even know that!"

"All. She knows all. I will search around for Vanessa. You, I'm going to assume you are Jack, should go speak with her. She would normally never speak to anyone from the ground, but you don't really count. Also, she would gladly do a favor for a fellow Guardian."

"Huh?"

"Go, Jack. She will explain."

And with that, Sally was gone, sprinting off to the left. I was about to say that the tower was to the right, but she was already too far. I shrugged and flew up to the little cloud island. I really wanted to ask this Queen a wackload of questions. If Sally was right, then she could tell me everything that I need to know. Like what was going on, what we had to do to end this, and what was going to happen to all of us. Would the rest of us be alive in twenty years? Or were we all going to die? It was tempting to go up there, tell her I was a Guardian, and then ask her everything. And I would have. Except for Manny.

_Jack, it is not for you to know yet. Ask her all you want in a few months, but for right now, you will only ask young Nuvola the questions I tell you to ask. That way the carnage of this next battle will remain at a minimum of hopefully only eleven._ He said Nuvola like new-vole-a.

_ But can I at least ask her…_

_ If I don't tell you to ask her, don't ask her._

_ You are such a control freak._

_ No, I'm not. I'm the man in the moon and I'm trying to save your girlfriend and future wife's life. Don't rush ahead. Besides, the questions brewing in your teenage mind are all dumb. You don't need to know if all your friends will survive._

_ Stop talking to me. You're almost never helpful, not even in the least! I will ask her whatever I want to ask her and that's the end of it._

_ I can take all of your free will away. Can and will. Don't make me turn you into a puppet, you become boring when I do that. _

_ Get out of my head, I'll ask her the damn questions you want me to ask, just stop threatening me. I'm not a toy._

_ That's very important Jack. Remember that._

_ What the heck is that supposed to mean?_

In true Manny fashion, the minute I asked him the question, he vanished. I rolled my eyes and cleared the final stretch to the island and almost landed, but the fact that it was made of clouds kind of made me wary, so I kept flying, barely hovering over the ground. The men and women with swords and armor who looked to be guards would stare at me with a bit of suspicion, but then they'd see that I was hovering too, so they'd smile and nod politely. Nobody stopped me even when I went into the castle. I looked around when I was inside. It was actually much smaller on the inside than it was on the outside. It also looked like a church, only it didn't have benches and a preacher's podium. It had a pair of thrones where a preacher's podium would be, but that was it.

"Who do you seek?" asked the voice of a girl. It had an Italian accent. I turned around and there was a woman standing behind me.

She had white hair tied back in a long braid and pale blue eyes, like me. She had a friendly air, like my mom had. Her skin was pale, so I thought that she was like me. But that wouldn't be the case, as I would find out later. She had a white shirt with a blue corset on overtop. She wore a blue skirt in the same color of her corset. Her flats did too. She also wore a white apron, tied around her waist and going to about an inch above the hem. She seemed like the head maid or something. Maybe she would know where Nuvola was.

"I'm looking for Queen Nuvola. Have you seen her?" I asked.

"You are not one of the cloud-people. Why do you seek her?" asked the girl.

"I need to ask her some questions. Sally told me she knows all."

"Know all, she does, Jack Frost. She knows you're here to ask her the questions that Manny wants you to ask, but not any of your own. She also knows that she must say something now. Congratulations, Jack, on your engagement." She uncrossed her arms and smiled now.

"How did you know that? I wonder!" I said sarcastically. She laughed and drew me into a motherly hug and then knelt down to get a better look of me.

"Ask whatever you like. I will answer anything," said Nuvola.

"Question one; what are you the Guardian of?" I asked.

"Do you remember as a child how you probably laid on your back and looked at the clouds to try to make out shapes in them?" she asked.

"Yeah," I replied.

"Well, I guard that."

"That's not a highly important virtue for children to have. It's not a virtue, actually."

"Do you have any idea how many minor Guardians there are in the world? They guard the little pleasures and wonders of children. Did you know there's a Guardian of first crushes? Or that there was one for cookies? And for playing dress-up? There are literally thousands of us all over the world. I suppose the elder Guardians really couldn't teach you about all of us, but we exist. Why, did you know that some of your friends are Guardians?"

"What? But none of them died. Do you mean the ones who died?"

"No, Manny thought it kinder to leave those poor children dead. It's better for them, being taken care of by the Guardians of children who passed before their time. I meant the ones who live. Mainly, seven of them. Rapunzel, the Guardian of spring. Hiccup, the Guardian of fall. Merida, the Guardian of summer. Kida, the Guardian of wooden sword fights. Wendy and Peter, the co-Guardians of being a child in general. Thimble, the Guardian of a spicing of attitude. That's about all of them."

"What about Jamie?"

"He can't be a Guardian. He's the child being guarded," she stood back up and walked over to a red tasseled rope on the wall I hadn't seen when I came in. She pulled on it and I heard a bell ring. A girl a tad bit younger than me floated down from the ceiling.

"Yes, my queen?" asked the girl.

"Please go to the kitchen and get me and my guest some cheeseburgers and fries. Maybe with a drink." She turned to me. "Is there anything you want in particular? You can have anything, though I know what you want. I just want you to tell me."

I thought about what I would like as a drink. I could have anything, but I knew what I wanted. I remembered what Tiana had called it when she had given them to me and Vanessa.

"Balloon juice with plain hats, please," I replied. Nuvola smiled, but the girl looked confused.

"Two root beer floats with vanilla ice cream please, Fleecy," said Nuvola to the girl. When the girl was gone, she turned to me. "You certainly loved that root beer float you shared with Vanessa. She was very beautiful as a human and she's very beautiful as one of Manny's chosen Guardians. You're very lucky to have her."

"Thank you...I think," I replied. I wasn't really sure what she meant by that. Did she mean I was lucky because she was pretty or because she was way out of my league and I was lucky that she was even interested in me?

"I meant that you're lucky that you can be together, what with all that has happened. I did not mean that you are beneath her or she is beneath you. You were always equals. We might want to head to my dining hall, _bueno?_"

"Um, sorry, what did you say?"

"_Bueno_. It's Italian for good. The cloud people are from Italy, our first originating in Rome, or, as my people say, _Roma_."

"Oh. Well, in that case, that sounds _bueno_ to me." She laughed and led me out through a door on the side of the room. She pushed it open and behind was a big room, but not as big as the room we just came from. There, on the long table in the center, in front of the head chair and a chair next to that, were platters with the most delicious looking burgers and fries and root beer floats I'd ever seen. The burgers were loaded, with lettuce, cheese, ketchup, mustard, pickles, and little bits of onions.

As I sat down, I remembered that most people like mayo, and so assumed everyone else did, so there was probably mayo on that burger. I didn't like mayo, actually. It smelled weird, like it was rotten. I didn't trust it. I discreetly peeked under the top bun and was amazed to discover that there was none there.

"Yes, I knew you didn't like mayonnaise, and neither do I. Nothing in the whole kingdom comes with that vile stuff. If anyone in the kingdom wants it, they must go to the ground towns and get it themselves." I smiled and ate a fry.

"That's convenient for me." She smiled too.

We talked and talked for a good long while. We laughed and ate and got serious only to laugh once again. She answered all my questions and I only asked the ones Manny insisted I ask. I found out the threat we faced was not really one of the physical kind. It was of the mental and emotional kind. Mental, because the enemy we were up against wasn't really Derek, although he would be there. It was an enemy who could take over your mind. It would be coming in about two weeks unless we made a sacrifice to Mother Earth, the greatest Guardian of all. Not a chicken or a blood sacrifice. It would take the willing sacrifice of the soul of a hero. Or, to be more specific, a hero who wouldn't realize their true potential until long after the sacrifice was made.

"Is that all you want to ask?" asked Nuvola when I was done.

"Only one more question. Is there I way I can get my mother and Bitsy back. I know they died of natural causes, but I still want them back. I didn't get nearly enough time with Bitsy."

"There is a way. The sacrifice comes with an exchange. Mother Earth will most likely exchange your mother and Bitsy for the hero's soul. Is that all?"

"For now. I'll be seeing you again soon Nuvola. And thanks for the food."

"Indeed. _Ci vediamo, il mio re!_ Be seeing you, my king!"

I didn't understand why she said 'my king', so I flew back to the tower, saw Vanessa and explained. That's pretty much the gist of it. But I never bothered to ask who it was who would be sacrificed. I hoped it wouldn't be Vanessa. But if she volunteered to go, I would do anything in my power to make sure it wasn't her that went.


	8. Hiccup's Treasure

I woke up the next morning on Jack's chest. I sat up slow because he was still passed out cold. I stood up and slowly made my way to the window seat, where Melody was sitting. She was singing softly, staring up at the rising sun. I smiled, remembering the first time I'd seen her do that.

"Still serenading the sun, I see," I whispered. She started and turned around. She saw it was me and put a hand to her chest. "Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."

"It's okay, you just startled me," said Melody. She had a bunch of bandages all over her. I cringed at the sight of them. She rubbed her hand up her arm. "Yeah, I got pretty beat up yesterday."

"You shouldn't have fought. You're too young for that," I said putting a hand on her shoulder. She shrugged.

"Giselle fought. I figured if she was going to fight, then so should I. Besides, they needed all the help they could get. It was brutal, and we didn't even win!" Melody exclaimed softly.

"I know, but still. You should be back in Atlantica. I bet your dad is worried about you," I replied.

"Nah, he knows I'm here. Ariel wanted to come, but she's the queen. She had to stay in the kingdom. She told me to tell you that she misses you."

"Well, the next time you see her, tell her I miss her too. Anyways, I have to go check on Derek. He said he was going to kill himself, but I couldn't go check on him."

"I don't suppose you want me to tell Jack that when he asks where you went?"

"Oh, good God, no. Just tell anyone who asks that I went out scouting."

"Scouting for what?"

"Evil weasels or something. Just make something up. If they don't buy it, well then I'm screwed. I'll be back in an hour at most."

She moved over and I dove headfirst out the window. I swooped up above the tree-line and looked around for Derek's fortress. I spotted it among the trees. I blew a lock of hair out of my eye and flew straight towards it. As soon as I was close enough, I flew to Derek's window. He was inside, and thankfully not dead either. He was just on a chair, staring blankly at the floor. I knocked on the window and he looked up. He stood and opened the window.

"Please, come in," said Derek sarcastically. I touched down in the room and sighed.

"I'm sorry. I couldn't let you into the tower, not when everyone was still mad. I don't know what might have happened," I replied. He didn't respond, so I hugged him. "I'm sorry, okay? I didn't mean for any of this to happen. I just fell in love twice. I know that I can't have you both, but I love both of you just the same. He's not any more important to me than you are, and vice versa."

After that, he just pulled my arms off of him. I threw my hands up in exasperation.

"You're very thick-headed. Can't do a thing with you," I said with a laugh. He just looked at me with that 'just no' face. My smile vanished. "Fine, not a time for jokes. I know. But that's just my nature; I am partly a Guardian of fun."

"Vanessa, can you just go? It's really painful to have you around. It's just better if we get our distance for at least a little while," said Derek. I widened my eyes and backed up into the window.

"But…"

"No buts. I just need you gone for a while. Just go," said Derek, pointing out the window.

"Derek…" I saw on his face that he was serious. "Fine. But if I go, you have to make a promise to me."

"What do you want from me now?"

"If I come back and need your help, will you help?"

"Sure. I pinky swear or whatever. Just go please."

"Okay. I'll go. See you later?"

"Whatever."

I flew out the window and was about to head back to the tower, but I decided that I wanted to go for a fly. So I swooped around and around the sky until the sun had risen completely. I was about to go back, but I saw the cloud island that Jack had told me about. I wanted to ask Nuvola some questions myself. I flew over the landscape of trees and little rolling hills to the cloud island. Once I was there, I realized that these cloud-people were very active during the day. Jack had gone at three in the morning. I was there at eight. The streets were bustling. I just flew above them, although that was a little hard to do because they were flying too. I was at the castle gates and was about to go in when the guards at the door stopped me.

"What is your business here, Earth Walker?" said the dude. He had an Italian accent and he said Earth Walker as though he were cursing or something.

"I must speak with the queen," I replied. They looked angry.

"Does she know that you're here to speak with her?"

"Well…no, not particularly. But if you ask her about a Vanessa Frost, she'll know who I am."

"Ha! Don't make me laugh! You have no idea how many people come here with that story. _Vada via! _Go away!"

"Please, just…" The woman cut me off.

"_Andare viada qui, Terra-Camminatore! _Get away from here, Earth-Walker!"

I was about to argue more, but a voice from behind me stopped me from doing so.

"_Lasciare questa povera ragazza da sola! Qual èla questione convoi? Si tratta di Vanessa. Il Vanessa ho parlato molte volte prima! Dovrei frusta per questo! Si sapeva che stava arrivando oggi, te l'avevo detto! Basta andare a casa. Sei compiti per il giorno sono finiti_," said the voice of a woman from behind me. I had no clue what she was saying, all I knew was that she sounded _pissed!_

The guards quickly left, and when I turned around, I saw the woman that Jack had described to me. This was Queen Nuvola.

"Sorry about that. Good help is hard to come by in this age where money is all that matters. But, no, money does not matter to you very much, does it?" asked Nuvola as we went up the stairs.

"No, not really. But I need to ask you some questions," I said.

"All in good time. Today is not the day for you to ask me questions, although I am very glad that you decided to come here after all. There are two things that I must give to you. Well, three if you want to be specific. Two material objects, and a sort of ominous warning. The ominous warning will come just before you go, so that we don't ruin this visit, _bueno?_" At the last word, she pushed open the door. The throne room was empty, which was shocking considering all the people everywhere else. She rushed me off to a chest on the side of the room.

She grabbed a key off of the wall and unlocked the chest. She placed the key back on the hook and motioned for me to open the chest. The heavy wooden lid creaked as I opened it. When It was fully open, I reached down inside. There were only two things in there, a map and a key on a chain. I picked them up and stared at them in confusion.

"These were left to me by my dear friend Camille the Fair, from the town of Berk," said Nuvola. I gasped.

"Hiccup's mom!" I exclaimed.

"Yes, she was indeed the mother of your good friend Hiccup. She gave these to me shortly before she died, saying that one day I was to give them to Hiccup. I knew that Hiccup would never find his way here alone, so I am doing the next best thing. I will entrust them to you to pass on to Hiccup."

"Where does the map lead to?"

"A cave somewhere in the woods. I know where, but where's the adventure in telling you before you even begin to search? Inside the cave is a chest. Hiccup will recognize the crest of Berk on the clasp of the chest. Inside the chest are three things, two placed in there by Camille for Hiccup, and one placed in there by me for you. One of the two things left for Hiccup is a letter. The other is a surprise. What I left for you is also a surprise, but you're going to need it."

"Soon?"

"_Santo cielo, non! _Goodness, no! But you will need it, no matter how far off into the future it is that you will need it. This is your next quest. You will not face many perils along the way, but you will find the one you seek. Open the map." I did so and looked it over. I saw the big red x. Nuvola pointed to a little cluster of trees not far from where the x was. "The Earth Mother lives there. She will gladly help you, and she is not far off. This quest is so that not only can Hiccup feel a connection to a mother he barely remembers, but so that you can be taken right to the Earth Mother. Of course, you can always just sit in the tower until the next battle comes…"

"NO!" It wasn't until the word left my mouth and it started echoing off the pillars that I realized I might have said it a bit too loud. I cleared my throat. "I mean, I would love to go on this quest. Who will need to be there?"

"Hiccup of course. Merida too. Also you and Jack. And I know this might be a bit complicated, but you will need Derek as well. He plays an essential role, but none of you realize it yet. That is all you will need. A small group will travel faster, but you all have to be there."

"That's really going to raise the tension. Jack and Derek? Together? On a quest through the woods? With me there as well? It's probably not going to end well."

"I know. But it might go by a bit more smoothly than you'd think. Take these back to Hiccup. I'm sure he'll be very eager to depart."

"What about that ominous warning?" I asked, standing up after folding the map.

"Oh, yes! My, I must be getting old. This isn't really for you; I want you to tell this to Jack. Tell him that late is late. Even if it's as little as twenty minutes, it's still late. Tell him that he's going to be late when it really counts." I looked up at her with wide eyes. She was right, that was ominous.

"I'll be sure to tell him. Thank you. For everything you've done for Jack and me. It feels like Manny is against us, or trying to hurt us instead of helping us."

"He means well, and you'll be surprised to know that he is doing well. You'll never understand fully the plan he has laid out until the events come to pass. Now be swift, my young Guardian, and return to your friends." I smiled and bolted for the door, hugging the map and key to my chest.

I burst through the door and swooped up into the sky. I was ecstatic that we were finally going to get a break from all the killing and carnage. I just wanted an adventure, and this was our key. Plus, I knew Hiccup was going to be so excited when he found out about it. I was soon back at the tower. I burst through the window and almost stuck the landing, but I landed on a rug and it slid out from underneath me. I tumbled to the ground, but I managed to keep a grip on the map and key. I landed on my back and soon Merida, Rapunzel and Jack were crowded around me.

"Are you okay?" asked Jack, helping me up. I was so out of breath that I couldn't say a thing. Hiccup was sitting on a chair not far away. His leg was much better now; Pocahontas could work miracles like that. It appeared to be completely healed overnight.

I unfolded the map as I stumbled towards Hiccup. On the back was his mother's signature. I flipped the map over and managed to get it on his lap before I fell again. He looked down at the map in confusion until he read the signature. He sat forward in shock and gasped.

"My mother drew this! Vanessa, where did you get this?!" he exclaimed.

"Nuvola…map…cave…chest…your mother…letter…" was all I could get out.

"Okay guys, let's give her some room," said Jack, helping me up again. Hiccup stood and Jack sat me in the chair. Rapunzel came running back into the area with a glass of water. After I had a drink and some time to relax I could explain.

"Okay. Nuvola gave me this map and this key," I said, holding up the key. Hiccup took it. "She was friends with your mother. Your mother gave her this key and map before she died for safekeeping until you could come for it. This map leads to a cave. Inside is a chest that has three things inside, one for me that Nuvola placed there, and two for you, both from your mother. One is a letter. The other is something. Nuvola wouldn't tell me what it was."

"That's…amazing! We have to go find this chest, right now!" said Hiccup.

"We'll go in just a minute. Nuvola told me who was to come with us. Hiccup, obviously. Merida as well. Me and Jack. And…um…Derek…" I trailed off.

"Seriously?" asked Jack with a groan. I sighed.

"I know, you don't like him. But honestly, Nuvola said that we'd need him. Please be reasonable, just this once?" I pleaded. He sighed.

"Fine. Let's pack up and go get Derek," said Jack. I smiled.

"Can I come?" asked Rapunzel. I didn't want to leave her behind. She was one of my best friends, but I wouldn't need her this time.

"I'm sorry, but no. You hold down the fort for me while I'm gone, okay?" I asked. She seemed a little upset, but she nodded.

After ten minutes, we were ready. Jack and I flew out the window with our elbows under somebody's armpits. I had Merida, Jack had Hiccup. We set them on the ground. Hiccup whistled for Toothless and Merida called for Angus. Angus came barreling out of the woods and Toothless landed down in front of Hiccup. They each climbed up onto their saddles and Jack and I flew. Soon, we were headed off to Derek's fortress.


	9. Settle the Score

So there we were, on our way to find a chest that Hiccup's mother left had left for him. We had just gotten Derek from his evil little fortress. I really didn't like the idea of him coming along, but if Nuvola said he had to be there, then he had to be there. He looked like he didn't want to be there either, and honestly, I didn't blame him. He agreed to come only because he promised Vanessa that if she needed him, he'd do anything for her. He packed a bag, jumped on a griffin, and flew off with us.

Vanessa kept looking like she was forgetting something. She had this confused look on her face. Then her eyes widened and she turned to me.

"Jack, I forgot to tell you something!" she shouted over the wind.

"What is it?" I shouted back.

"Nuvola told me to tell you that late is late! She said that one day you're going to be late when it really matters that you're on time!" she shouted.

"I feel so loved!" I shouted back. She smiled and rolled her eyes. Then Hiccup rose up to join us on our level of altitude.

"So how long exactly do you think this will take?" shouted Hiccup. We could barely hear him over the wind.

"It looks like it might be two or three days at most, even with horses and dragons and griffins and flight," replied Vanessa. Hiccup nodded. Then he looked down at Merida. She had stopped riding and was waving her arms frantically.

"We should see what she wants!" shouted Hiccup. We nodded and each swooped down to the ground. We each landed around Merida.

"I know that we were making good time as we were, but there's something on the map I think you should read," said Merida, holding up the map and pointing to a little paragraph by where we were. It was Latin. I had learned how to read Latin over the years.

"_Fili, oportet te hinc ire dracones equi sine adiutorio. Credo in vobis. _Oh. That's a shame. Except for the last part," I said after reading it.

"What does it say?" asked Hiccup.

"It says 'My son, from this point you must walk without aid of horses and dragons. I believe in you'. So that means that from here, we can't have dragons or horses or griffins I suppose. So that must also mean that Vanessa and I won't be able to fly either. What about our packs?" I said. Derek scooped up my bag, which was attached to his griffin, and tossed it into my arms.

"We carry them," said Derek coldly. I glared daggers at him as he handed Vanessa her bag. I stopped when he turned around. "Carpo, I want you to fly home. Wait there until I blow the whistle." The griffin took off back in the direction we had just come from.

"Toothless, I need you to go back to the tower and keep everyone safe until I whistle for you, okay?" asked Hiccup. Toothless seemed to have nodded and then took off after Carpo. Merida simply had to spur Angus and he followed them off over the hills.

"Well, now what? We have no form of transportation and we have huge bags to carry," said Merida. Hiccup put a hand on her shoulder.

"We have to keep going. I need to know what's in that chest," said Hiccup. Merida looked up into his eyes and then sighed.

"I know. How about if we just take the food and other necessary supplies in one bag. That way we don't have to carry so much. We can store anything else in that hollow tree trunk and come back for it after we find the chest," said Merida. That actually wasn't a bad idea. We each opened our bags and scooped out everything. We took all the food, sleeping bags, pillows, matches and anything else that we would need and put them in Hiccup's pack. After that, we stuffed the bags and anything left over into the tree trunk. We started kind of arguing over who would carry the bag, until Merida suggested something. "How about as soon as your arms get tired and you've been carrying the pack for a decent amount of time, you pass it on to the person on your left or right."

"But who's gonna carry it first?" asked Vanessa. Merida rolled her eyes and picked up the camping pack.

"I am not a sissy prissy little girl, if you want to fight over who's gonna carry it, I will instead. Let's get a move on, we're wasting daylight!" said Merida. She handed the map to me and we went into the forest.

I thought that there wouldn't be very much of a path, but there was actually a cobblestone road throughout the whole time we were in there. I thought that it was going to end, but apparently it didn't. We kept to the trail, passing around the backpack and map every twenty minutes or so, but Hiccup kept the key around his neck the whole time. The fourth or fifth time that I got the map, I noticed something. We were on the wrong path. I looked up.

"Um, I know that this is a cushy walk, but this isn't the right trail," I said. Everyone looked at me in shock. I looked back at the map and pointed slightly to the left. "That's the way we have to go to get to the cave."

"Seriously?" said Vanessa with a groan. I nodded. She sighed and gave the pack to Merida. "Let's get going then. We have about twenty minutes to nightfall."

I passed the map to Hiccup and we reluctantly followed the girls and Derek into the grubby underbrush. We walked for the remaining twenty minutes of daylight we had left and came to a clearing. There was a sign on a tree, but the words weren't English. They were Danish runes. I hadn't learned how to read those, but Hiccup read them just fine. Here's what they looked like:

I have made this clearing for you, Hiccup. I trust you'll have arrived here by nightfall. I love you son.

This is what it actually said:

I have made this clearing for you, Hiccup. I trust you'll have arrived here by nightfall. I love you son.

"Well then, I suppose we're meant to stop here for the night. If Mom cleared it, then we should be here," said Hiccup. "I'll start the fire. You guys should get out the food and set out the sleeping bags. Somebody should go gather the firewood."

"I will," offered Merida. "I'm not scared. Vanessa, we should both go."

"Kay then. You boys be good, okay?" said Vanessa, staring directly at me and then at Derek.

"Alright, I understand. I'll be good," I promised. Derek rolled his eyes.

"Alright, alright, I'll be good. We'll play nice," said Derek.

"I'll make sure they do. And if I lied about it, Merida would know and probably whip me for it or something," said Merida.

"Damn right I will," said Merida with a laugh. Merida and Vanessa waved and turned around, heading deeper into the woods. Derek immediately turned to me.

"Okay, I want to know right here, right now why she went back to you. You clearly don't deserve her," said Derek. I raised an eyebrow.

"Okay gentlemen, settle down," said Hiccup.

"No, it's fine. I can answer that. And I'll do it nicely. She came back to me because she loves me. And, yeah, I don't deserve her. Frankly, she should be with someone much better," I replied.

"Yeah, I know. I really don't deserve her either," said Derek. He seemed to not be angry, just being honest.

"But if she loves you, then I'm not going to make her stay with me. If she really wants you, you can have her," I replied.

"No, she loves you. Well, technically, she loves us both. She told me so, actually. Many times."

"I guess that means we're kind of lucky."

"Yeah. I just wanted to have someone who loves me. All I had my entire life was my sister. My mother and father were always disappointed in me. I could never do anything to please them. Nothing was good enough for them."

"Dude, that is awful, but I was invisible for three hundred years. Do you know what it feels like to be lonely in a room full of people? Sure, snowball fights were fun even if the kids couldn't see me, but that's just it. They couldn't see me, it was barely fun."

"Yeah, that does sound rough. Giselle and I may have had an awful home life, but at least we could get away from it. For you, it was everywhere."

"Giselle's your sister?"

"Yeah. She's a doll, isn't she?"

"A bit lacking in the mental department, if you know what I mean, but other than that, I can agree with that."

He laughed then. I suddenly felt awful for thinking that he was evil. There must be some reason as to why he killed and kidnapped a bunch of us. I thought that maybe I should ask.

"As a man-to-man thing, why did you kidnap the princesses?"

"Oh. Well, believe you me, that wasn't my idea. It was Pitch's idea. He told me if I kidnapped the princesses and went to Vanessa, It would bring her to me. I didn't realize he just wanted her to get to Thimble. Do you think he wants to hurt her?"

"No, man. She's his daughter. Didn't you know?"

"No. Wait a second! Pitch? Has a daughter? Who…who _slept _with that guy?"

I shrugged. He shrugged back and Hiccup looked down at the ground. Derek and I both looked at each other, to Hiccup, then back to each other.

"Hiccup, do you know who it was?" I asked.

"Well, yeah. It was about a hundred and thirteen years ago, but my great-great-grandfather knew the story. Her name was Madison. The story was called 'Fear and Love', because Pitch is the embodiment of fear and Madison was the embodiment of love. Well, I shouldn't say they were anything, they still are. The story goes that one night Fear and Love met. Fear instantly was mesmerized by Love, and Love found Fear to be quite interesting. Love could find something to love about everyone, and so they fell in love. A year or two later, they had a daughter named Thimble who was later blessed to know everything, past and present, but none future. That's about the whole story. Except that later on, Fear knew he had to leave before his actions influenced the child. He vanished into the night and Love married a king. Twelve years later, the king and all of Love's children with the king were murdered. Love thought she had escaped with Thimble, but she discovered that Thimble wasn't with her. The guards found Thimble next to the bodies of her brothers and sisters and they sentenced her to be placed in a diamond for eternity, believing she was the one to blame. Nobody's heard tell of her ever since. Until we found her, then they heard tell of her. And by they, I mean we..."

"Okay, that's enough. I'm way too old for story time," said Derek. I rolled my eyes.

"You're still a child." He looked over at me in confusion.

"No, I'm not."

"You're only fourteen."

"I'm not a child."

"There are certain ages under which you are considered to be a child. You are still a child. Next year, you won't be."

"What are you talking about?"

"I am one of the immortal Guardians of childhood. I know things like this. From birth to the age of fifteen, you are a child and therefore under the protection of the Guardians. If you don't want to be considered a child, you won't be. But by law, you are still a child."

"Okay, thanks for confusing me. You confused more than you clarified."

"You asked."

"No, actually, I didn't."

"Okay boys. We're done here," said Hiccup, plopping down in between us. "Let's talk about something else. So, what do you want to do until the girls get back?"

"You don't have to do a wee thing until the lassies return. We're already back!" said a familiar Scottish voice. Merida and Vanessa came out of the shadows with their arms full of twigs and bits of branches.

"Did they play nice?" asked Vanessa, plopping her wood down on the ground.

"Actually, yes. This guy ain't half bad," I replied, wrapping my arm around Derek's neck, yanking his head over and proceeding to noogie him until he slapped me.

"He's not so bad either. But he needs to work on that feisty little fun-demon part of himself," said Derek.

Vanessa laughed and smiled with a tinge of pride at me and Derek. She sat down on a rock next to me while Hiccup and Merida lit the fire. We held hands and she told me that she and Merida had seen a possum family and their eyes had scared her.

"I'd have paid to see that," I said with a laugh. She rolled her eyes and then kissed me on the cheek.

In about half an hour, when tales had been told, stories exchanged and campfire songs sung, we spread out the sleeping bags. Vanessa, Merida, and Derek passed out almost the second their heads hit their pillows. Hiccup looked over at me.

"If this trip was for something my mom left me, would you still have come?" I asked Hiccup. I just felt the need to say something. It was too quiet.

"You know I would. Not just 'cause we're friends, but because I know what it feels like to not have a mom. I wouldn't want you to stay behind from this trip, so I'd assume you wouldn't want me too either," said Hiccup. I saw his smile in the flickering flames of the fire. I smiled back. He rolled over. I did so as well. I was asleep in seconds.


	10. Tears and a Group-Hug

In the morning, we headed out to keep searching for the cave. I was in favor of Jack and Derek paling around instead of ripping each other's throats out. Besides, I wasn't really worth it. I honestly didn't know why Jack didn't just drop me when I left him. I guess that made me special. At least, to Jack. Hiccup was getting really antsy. He insisted on keeping the map with him the whole time. After a while, he suggested we play a game.

"What kind of game?" I asked Hiccup.

'It's called 'Spill your Guts'. One of us asks another a question and you have to answer it fully and truthfully. I used to play this game with my mom. Hours of entertainment to be had with this game."

"All right then. I want to go first," insisted Merida. "Hiccup, it's high time you told us what happened to yer leg."

"All right, fine. It was about a month after I trained Toothless. It was on the island of the dragons. There was one mega-uber-chief dragon. It was about as big as this forest and it could have eaten me in one breath. Toothless and I fought it. We were almost winning; with the combined help of all the dragons there we'd managed to ignite a big enough fire to kill it. Unfortunately, Toothless' prosthetic tail fin caught on fire, and we fell. I fell right into the fire, but Toothless managed to get me out before too much damage happened. But not before my leg was burned off. That is what happened to my leg. Who's up next?"

"Jack, you tell us all about your sister Bitsy. Everything about her that you remember," I said to Jack.

"Ah, Bitsy. She was a sweetheart. She loved everyone and everything. She was beloved by everyone in the village," said Jack, smiling up at the sky. "She loved the winter, just like I did. She loved Vanessa too. She was always saying that she wanted to be like Vanessa when she grew up. Bitsy and Vanessa and I were always outside playing, whether it was spring, summer, fall, or winter. During the time we all got to be together, we made a swing set in the trees. Three swings cut exactly to fit only us. She loved it. She loved the woods, she loved the lake, she loved the birds and the butterflies, she loved the sunshine, she loved the cloudy days, she loved being inside, she loved being outside, heck, she loved everything!"

"Tell us about the day she was born," said Hiccup. We all wanted to hear more, even Derek seemed mildly interested.

"Okay then, although I have no idea at all why you care so much," said Jack, rolling his eyes. "The day that Bitsy was born, I was out in the woods. With Vanessa, actually. We were climbing trees. I believe it was summer. She challenged me to a tree-climbing contest, and I was not going to be beaten by a girl. Even at eight, I had my dignity. In the end, I climbed the tallest tree and hung upside down from one of the highest branches. Vanessa wouldn't do it. We climbed down and headed home to go eat some of Mom's fresh homemade bread. When we went through the door, we heard a baby crying. I dashed into Mom's room and there she was, lying in bed holding a baby with the doctor in the chair next to her bed. Vanessa came in after me and we ran to the bed. Mom let me hold her first. 'Her name is Bitsy,' said Mom. I handed her to Vanessa and said that I wondered what Dad would think of her. My dad had died a few months before that, but that's beside the point. I can't remember exactly the day, but it was July. When Mom went to take her from Vanessa, she started crying, which told me that she was going to love Vanessa like an older sister. Are we clear on this now?"

"Yeah, I think we are. Now, Merida, I insist you tell us why you liked Hiccup right away," said Derek, leaning back to look at her from behind Jack and me.

"Hmmm, I donnae think ye should know that, Derek," said Merida, smirking.

"Aw, c'mon Meri! I'm feelin' gossipy," said Derek, making me laugh. Merida rolled her eyes.

"A'right. I'll tell you. Hiccup, no need to be embarrassed about this, right?" asked Merida. He shrugged, eyebrows furrowed and eyes fixed on the map. "A'right, I originally found Hiccup interesting because of his dragon. I myself had never seen a dragon, so, yes; I became his friend because of his dragon. But when I saw him ride Toothless… I swear I've never seen such an amazing sight. I wanted to be like that, like a god on Earth."

"I wouldn't say god. Maybe hero, but I'm no god," said Hiccup, eyes still on the map.

"No, I would say god, you would say hero. Anyhow, I soon learned to ride Toothless and I ended up loving him. He was so kind, and patient. But he was a wee bit of a wuss. I knew that I could make him braver and better at what he does if we would just start dating. I pretty much forced him to start liking me," said Merida with a laugh. Then she suddenly hugged Hiccup from behind and he stumbled backwards. She caught him and she was holding him up. "Although we still have a few kinks to work out, don't we?"

He smiled weakly and with a touch of embarrassment. Merida laughed and leaned forward to kiss him. Then she helped him up onto his feet and we continued walking.

"Alright. Derek, I want to know more about your home life, before the school," said Jack, seeming to already know the answer and just wanting him to admit it out loud.

"Well, my parents were… not the best. They were a bit of the neglecting type. I mean, they meant well, I suppose, but Giselle and I were barely paid attention to," said Derek, shrugging like he was trying to shrug off the conversation.

"Giselle? As in the eleven-year-old girl who is really wimpy and can't do a thing for herself?" asked Hiccup.

"Yes, her. I love her to pieces," said Derek, smiling a little bit. Jack gave him a teasing shove and Derek shoved him back.

"Uh, guys? This is fun and all, but you really need to see this," said Hiccup, stopping suddenly. He slowly pointed forward at a cave with the mouth blocked off by boulders. There were Latin words engraved on them.

_SingultusHorrendumAsellusIII._

"Translation: Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the third," said Jack, smirking. Hiccup ran toward the cave and started pulling at the boulders. Merida looked over at me and then ran to join him.

"Hiccup, there is no way ye can move all these boulders alone," said Merida. Jack flew up to them.

"Then he won't. Derek, Vanessa! Let's help them out with this. Besides, there's stuff for people other than Hiccup," said Jack

"I don't need to be bribed, he's my friend," I replied, rushing forward and tugging on the boulders.

We worked together at a fast pace and soon we had cleared the mouth of the cave out. Jack grabbed the pack off the ground and we went inside. As if by magic, all the boulders we'd worked to clear replaced themselves and we were plunged into darkness. Merida used her magic to light a ball of fire in her hand. The stony walls of the cave were eerily lit by the flickering blaze, just enough for us to see three feet in front of us and each other.

"Well, that was unexpected," said Derek, walking forward slowly.

"Yeah. I guess Mom didn't want anyone to follow us when we came inside. Or something else doesn't want us to come back out," said Hiccup. Merida smacked him.

"Don't say that! Bad enough I don't enjoy being inside caves, let alone in the dark," said Merida, her voice quavering a little bit.

"Scared of caves? You? Not what I expected at all," said Vanessa, smirking. Merida reached over and fake punched her.

"I can still gut you with my bare hands and don't you forget it," said Merida with a laugh. Vanessa shrugged, as though she were saying 'Can't argue with that.'

Soon, we came to a little side room. There was nothing in it but the chest. Hiccup dropped the pack and let go of Merida's hand. He dashed to the chest, fell to his knees and quickly removed the chain holding the key from around his neck.

"This is it. I'm finally going to see what Mom left for me," said Hiccup. He took a steadying breath, closed his eyes and inserted the key in the keyhole. He turned it and opened both his eyes and the chest. He looked inside and gasped. "Oh, Thor and Odin in heaven above. How did she...?"

"What is it?" asked Jack. We all took a step closer and Hiccup took the three things from the chest.

In the flickering light of the flames, I could see the letter and a bottle. There was also something that looked like a misshapen lump of coal. I got so frustrated trying to make out what it was that I reached inside myself for the brightest light I had. What came out was what looked like glowing golden dust. Everyone turned from Hiccup to me.

"You can create dream-sand too?" asked Jack, reaching out to touch one of the tendrils of sand. I shrugged and he touched it. It immediately dissolved from a tendril into dozens of snowflakes. Jack laughed. "Well, now we can see what it is."

"Vanessa, this bottle is for you," said Hiccup, tossing it to me. I caught it and it landed with a soft splashing noise in my hands. I stuffed the bottle into my coat pocket and knelt down to get a better look at the thing that had looked like coal.

Once I got a closer look, I saw that it wasn't coal at all, or even a rock. It was a little blue stuffed dragon, falling apart at the seams, but not to the point of it losing any limbs or anything. It kind of looked like a friendlier, more cartoonish Toothless. Hiccup sniffled with a weak smile on his face.

"She made this for me when I was a year old. I had almost completely forgotten about this," said Hiccup, tears forming in the corners of his eyes as he held it close to his chest. "Somebody else read the letter. If I do, I'll cry."

"I've got this," I replied. I picked up the letter from Hiccup's outstretched hand and unfolded it. I began to read.

_Dear Hiccup, Nuvola tells me that by the time you find this chest, I will already be long gone from your side. Only in the physical world. I will never really leave your side. The dragon is a reminder of that. I am here with you, not in body, but in spirit, and I am proud of you for all you have done. And yes, I know all about Toothless and the dragon-training and the fight with the Red Death. I know about what happened to your leg. I'm sorry I couldn't hug you and tell you it was going to be okay, because I wanted to. Nuvola told me everything that was going to happen to you and your father when I was gone. I wish I was there, but since I can't be, just know I am watching you, smiling down. I love you Hiccup. You could never disappoint me. Love, Mom._

When I was finished reading the letter, Merida and Hiccup were holding each other and crying. Jack and Derek both had tears in their eyes, Jack because he was probably thinking about his mother and Derek because he wished his mom would say things like that to him. There were tears in my eyes too. I hadn't seen my mother in months, or even heard from her. I wanted to go back to Canada and see her again. Jack saw me swipe my eyes and he wrapped his arm around my shoulder. He was holding back tears and that just made me cry. Derek lost it too. He fell to his knees and sobbed. Jack was still holding his back.

"It's okay, we're all crying. You can cry too," I said with a weak smile. He hugged me and cried too. In a matter of seconds, Derek hugged me. Then Merida hugged all three of us and Hiccup hugged her. It was my first real group hug.

After the tears had died down and we'd all had our laugh about it, I pulled the bottle out of my pocket. In this lighting I could read the label. It said 'Potion of Ultimate Healing'. I gasped and read it again, to make sure it wasn't a mistake. It wasn't. I had heard about this potion in magic class. It was extremely rare, only seven were brewed in the entire world in all history. They could heal anything and bring back the dead. If you were perfectly healthy and drank it, you would never be sick again. This was the most important thing I'd ever owned. Ever.

"Guys, potion of ultimate healing!" I exclaimed, holding out the potion. Hiccup gasped and took it from my hand. He looked at it in amazement.

"This could fix my leg…" said Hiccup softly. I took the potion back.

"If I let you drink this and someone really needs it, would you live with it knowing that it was your fault?" I asked. "You have an artificial leg and you've managed fine with it for a few years now. Just leave it at that."

Hiccup shrugged and we went back out the way we came in. When we were out of the cave, Merida, Hiccup, and Derek both turned back the way we had walked. Jack and I turned towards the general direction of the clearing Nuvola had told me about.

"Guys, wait!" said Jack. They turned around and looked at us. "We have to go this way first."

"Why?" asked Merida. So I told everyone about Mother Earth and the enemy and how we were going to get rid of it. They all seemed taken aback. "Wow…A…A willing sacrifice? Which…Which one of us is going to go?"

"I would go, and I'm guessing Jack would too, but we can't. We have to both survive to have our daughter," I replied. I didn't want to see anyone go like that, especially not one of my friends.

Derek opened his mouth to say something, but he looked up into the sky with a confused look on his face. I heard a screech and we all looked where he was pointing. It was his griffin, Danzi, carrying three girls on his back, one with auburn hair up in a ponytail, one with long orange hair, and one with short brown hair. Thimble, Giselle, and Rapunzel were riding on Danzi. They landed and Giselle slam-hugged Derek.

"Nuvola visited the tower. She told me and Thimble and Rapunzel that we could all come with you guys now. She said we needed to be here for something," said Giselle. Derek laughed and hugged her.

"I am so glad you two are alright!" exclaimed Rapunzel, hugging me and Merida both. We hugged her back, both of us equally glad that we were alright and to see her. I hugged Thimble because, honestly, who else was going to hug her?

We continued onward while Hiccup told the tale of our journey this far. Rapunzel promised that when we got back to Mickey's castle (he offered to let us all live there when we got back) she would fix his dragon. We finally came to the clearing, but the only thing in the clearing was a shrub.

"What is this? Where is she?" I asked, confused, we all heard a twig snap and our heads whipped behind us. We slowly started to walk towards the source of the noise when something stopped us.

"Are you children looking for me?" asked a kind woman's voice. We turned around and there, hovering above the bush and glowing with a faint green light, was Mother Earth.


	11. Mother Earth and Wishes

"M…Mother Earth?" asked Vanessa. The kindly looking woman with the green skin and glow wearing leaves and flowers for clothes smiled and nodded. She stepped down onto the ground and hugged her.

"My dear, Vanessa Clemens. I have heard so many good things about you," said Mother Earth. Vanessa hugged her back. Her just being around me made me feel calmer, so I wondered what a hug from her would be like.

Vanessa let go and looked at Mother Earth. "We need your help."

"I know. The animals have told me. I am quite willing to help. Now, which one of you is quite willing to help me help you?" asked Mother Earth.

Nobody was stepping up fast. Finally, Giselle came forward.

"I'll go," said Giselle, her voice brave and bold for once. "There's none left for me. Nobody's ever going to tell great tales about Princess Giselle. I want to go and save people," said Giselle.

"No, I'll go, and there had best not be a damn soul that argues it," said Thimble, stepping forward. Nobody argued. She walked right up to Mother Earth and knelt down in front of her. "I offer to you my spirit in exchange for you to stop the enemy."

Vanessa handed the potion to Derek and stepped forward to stop her. He put it in his pocket and watched nervously. Before she got close enough, a voice was heard. I knew that voice well. I raised my staff in a defensive position as he stepped out of the shadows. He looked almost exactly the same as last time, but he had an unfamiliar look on his face. I finally registered that it was anguish and despair.

"No! I refuse to let you go!" exclaimed Pitch, rushing forward to hug Thimble. Thimble held out her arms and stopped him from touching her.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! I swear to Manny that if you touch me, I am going to rip your throat out!" exclaimed Thimble, backing away. Pitch got a pained look on his face.

"I don't know why I wanted it to get this far. Why I wanted you to not know," said Pitch. "And I have to say something now, no matter what. You will not sacrifice yourself for this!"

"What are you doing here?" demanded Merida, knocking an arrow and aiming at Pitch. "And you have exactly ten seconds to say why before I shoot."

"Its okay guys," said Vanessa, stepping between Pitch and Merida. "He's just here to protect his daughter. I promised that I would stop this, so stop this I will."

"What are you talking about?" asked Thimble.

"He's your father, Thimble," I replied, remembering the night at the lake, when Pitch had taken over Thimble to insist that Vanessa protect her. "Vanessa promised when you offered to go, she wouldn't let you go. I was watching the whole time, but neither of you knew I was there. So, Thimble, I wouldn't do it if I was you."

"I'm confused…" said Thimble. "What's going on here and why does everyone know what's going on except for me?"

"Enough," said Derek. He stepped towards Mother Earth and knelt down. "Take me. It will end all the trouble."

"What?" said Vanessa. "No, not you Derek."

"I have to go," said Derek.

"But…"

"No buts. I know why Nuvola wanted me to come with you guys, why she told Thimble and Giselle to be here. Thimble had to be here because Pitch needs to be so concerned for Thimble's safety that he won't ever try to hurt you guys again. Giselle had to be here because she's my sister."

"Derek, what are you saying?" asked Giselle. "You're going to go and I'm only here to see you go?"

Derek nodded. You know how people say 'all hell breaks loose'? I mean this quite literally when I say all hell broke loose. Giselle started crying and Vanessa ran to Derek with her, Pitch tried to calm things down, Thimble started fighting with him, he fought back, Merida ran forward and tried to calm down Vanessa and Giselle, Rapunzel did too, all the crying made her cry too, Merida was yelling for them to stop, Hiccup tried to calm him down. I just calmly stood to one side and watched the chaos. All of a sudden, everyone's mouths except mine were magically stuck shut. Mother Earth seemed to sigh in relief.

"Thank goodness for that. Jack Frost, the only one to keep your head, you will get to be witness to it all. Yes, Derek was correct about all that he said," said Mother Earth. "I see how strong Derek's spirit is, I see how good and true he really is. I will exchange his soul for one wish, anything at all, for everyone here."

"I know Vanessa is going to hate me for this, but you should take him. If it's going to save hundreds, what would one soul be?" I replied. I felt evil, handing over his soul. But Derek offered it first. Derek stood and looked at me. He nodded and went up to Mother Earth. "Hey, Derek?" He turned to me. "See you on the other side, Buddy."

Derek smiled and nodded. Vanessa and Giselle ran forward to stop him but they became frozen in place. Tears poured down their cheeks as Derek turned to them and winked. Mother Earth unfroze his mouth.

"May I do one thing first?" asked Derek. Mother Earth nodded with a knowing smile and a warm expression. He went back to Giselle and Vanessa and hugged them both. "I love you both. Giselle, you gotta be strong for me when I'm gone. It's gonna be perfectly fine, just keep living and be just as you were before I go. Vanessa, you go live and be happy with Jack. I know you're going to miss me and that's fine, but don't let this change you forever. I'm gonna miss you both." He turned to me. "Jack, you make sure they stay safe and together. I trust you with my sister, so don't disappoint me, 'kay Man?"

"Sure thing. I can keep an eye on her," I said. Derek smiled. "You try to have fun over there, okay?"

He nodded. He finally turned back to Mother Earth and knelt back down in front of her.

"Are you quite sure you want to make this great sacrifice?" asked Mother Earth. "I know that you must do this, but it is still your choice."

"I will do this, because I know I must," said Derek. "Do whatever it is that you will."

Mother Earth reached out and put her hand on the top of his head. She closed her eyes and the glow around her intensified. It dimmed and spread down her hand and over Derek. Derek's skin became green and his eyes closed. His skin appeared to be cracking. Wherever a crack appeared, green light shone from it. He began to break apart in little pieces. He gave me one last smile before he completely shattered. The pieces dissolved into green light and there was nothing left.

Everyone's mouths became unsealed and Vanessa and Giselle could move again. Everyone looked shaken, even Pitch. Vanessa ran to me and hugged onto me tightly she cried on my shoulder while I told her it was going to be fine. Giselle didn't cry. She danced. It reminded me of my sister. She'd dance whenever she was sad or angry so that she felt better. She would still cry and scream, but she would dance at the same time. Giselle cried as she danced. Thimble and Rapunzel went over to Merida.

"Well, now that that is finally over, I will offer you each one wish. Anything you desire but not the return of Derek," said Mother Earth. "It is the least I can do. I can tell you all had strong feelings for him, whether as a friend, brother, or something more."

"Can I go first?" asked Thimble. Mother Earth nodded. "I want to get rid of the gift the fairies gave me. I don't want to know everything anymore. I hate it, and it only hurts me."

Mother Earth smiled and blew a kiss at Thimble. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and opened her eyes again.

"So, is there a rescue party coming out for us?" I asked.

"I…I don't know… I DON'T KNOW!" she exclaimed excitedly. Then she looped her elbow around Giselle's and danced with her in joy.

"May I have a wish, or am I the exception?" asked Pitch.

"You may have a wish, Pitch, but not for the reason that you think," said Mother Earth. She said it as though she wanted him to know why he was getting a wish, but not in a way that anyone else would know. "What do you wish for?"

"I wish that Thimble and Madison and I could live together and be a family again," said Pitch. "That is my wish."

Mother Earth snapped and a beautiful woman with luxurious blond hair and pale skin appeared. She blinked her pretty pink eyes and then smiled the most dazzling smile I'd ever seen. She rushed forward and hugged Pitch.

"Madison!" exclaimed Pitch. She hugged him tight and he hugged her equally as tight.

"I thought you were gone forever. When I had heard that the Guardians had defeated you, I thought…" I cleared my throat and she looked over at me. She let go of Pitch and walked over to me. "So, you're the newest Guardian, the Guardian of fun? Did you defeat Pitch?" I nodded. She smiled and hugged me. "If you hadn't defeated Pitch, we wouldn't be together right now. So for that, I thank you."

"M…Mom?" said Thimble with a shaky voice. Madison turned from me to Thimble and her pink eyes lit up brighter than the sun. She ran to Thimble, knelt down and hugged her as close as she could. "When they put me in that diamond, I thought I'd never see you again!"

"So did I!" exclaimed Madison. Then she looked over at Pitch. "You're her father, get over here and become a part of this hug." Pitch laughed and came over to join in the hug.

It made m miss my family. Then I remembered that I still had my wish to make. I stepped up. "My wish is to have Mom and Bitsy back, exactly how I remember them," I said with confidence. Mother Earth smiled.

"A family man, are you? Indeed, I though as much. Very good," said Mother Earth. "I call forth the spirits of Monica Overland and Bitsy Overland at the exact ages and appearances in the memories of Jack Frost."

A bunch of dead leaves from the fall gathered and swirled around and around, beginning to form two shapes, one being completely formed sooner than the other. They became more detailed. The tall one began to take on the curves and general form of a grown woman, and the little one formed into a little girl. The leaves slowly turned to people, and there was my mom, with her shoulder length brown hair and warm look, wearing the dark red dress she was wearing the last time I saw her. Bitsy was standing next to her, wearing that brown dress with the red border around the hem. They looked around and their eyes fell on me.

"You look a lot like someone I know," said Mom. "Maybe a neighbor or friend."

"Mommy, he looks like Jack. He could be Jack, if Jack didn't have skin darker than that and brown hair and eyes," said Bitsy. "I hope Jack is okay."

"I'm perfectly fine. It is me, guys. And Bitsy, do you remember Vanessa?" I asked. She nodded with a shocked look on her face. I pointed to Vanessa. She waved. "That's her."

"Nuh uh!" said Bitsy. "Vanessa has pretty purple eyes."

"Not anymore. It's a long story, but it is me, Jackson Overland, and that's her, Vanessa Clemens," I reassured them. Mom looked at me with a confused look in her eyes. Then they became teary and she ran forward to hug me. "It is me, I promise."

Vanessa came over and Mom let go and motioned for her to join in. Bitsy hugged us all until we let her inside the group. It was the happiest moment in my life. There, I had my mother, my sister, and my fiancée, all at once. I got a little teary for the second time that day. When we let go, it was Hiccup's turn to wish for something.

"I was going to wish for my leg back, but now I just want _my_ mom back," said Hiccup. Mother Earth smiled and the same thing happened again, dead leaves formed a woman and she became a human. She saw Hiccup, looked down at his leg, and then hugged him. "You can tell me that everything is going to be okay now, if you want."

"I see you got to the cave," said Camille, smiling and holding Hiccup tight. They didn't call her 'Camille the Fair' because she was a fair person. They called her that because she was beautiful. She was the third prettiest one in the clearing, after Vanessa and Madison. Vanessa was just for me. "I missed you. I got to watch you through all your adventures and I knew that I was going to get to rejoin you today. I missed you. I love you so much, Hiccup. You have never once disappointed me."

"Thanks Mom," said Hiccup, tears brimming in his eyes. "We're going to have to write a message to Dad and tell him you're back."

"First, 'tis my turn for a wish," said Merida. "Now, I have everything I ever wanted. So I will wish for something for all of us. I wish that Hiccup, Rapunzel, and I would all stop aging on our next birthdays and that our kids would stop aging at fourteen. That way we won't be out of place next to Jack and Vanessa."

Mother Earth snapped her fingers and declared it done. Rapunzel smiled and then gasped. "What about Eugene?" she exclaimed. Mother Earth shrugged and said it was too late. "Okay, my wish. I don't want to wish for the same thing for Eugene because he might not want it. So I'm going to wish for my hair back, all seventy feet, blonde and with all its powers fully restored"

Before everyone's eyes her short brown hair grew back to its original length, paled down to blonde, and stopped doing anything. She tentatively sang the first bar of her healing incantation and the bright glow filled her hair. I had a cut on my hand, so I reached out and grabbed a fistful of her hair. When the song was over, I let go and saw that the cut was completely gone, not even a scar to prove that I had ever had one.

"Did it work?" asked Rapunzel. I nodded and she grabbed Thimble and Giselle and the three danced together. "I can't believe it's all back!"

"My turn for a wish!" exclaimed Giselle. "I wish that I could travel the world, helping everyone wherever I go. Derek would be proud of that wish."

"And so it shall be done, but not until you're old enough to do it. Give it five more years, and then your wish will come true in full," said Mother Earth. Giselle ran forwards and hugged her. "You're quite welcome, Little One."

Everyone had made a wish except for Vanessa. She came forwards and smiled. I knew what she was going to wish for. She'd told me that if she could have any wish, she would wish…

"I wish that I could reopen the princess academy and later on become the principal of it. But I want all girls to be able to come, whether they're a princess or just a girl from the village and everyone in between," said Vanessa. "And the boys! Boys are welcome too!"

"And it will be done, as soon as you get back to Mickey's castle. Now, you have all made a wish, correct?" We all nodded. "Then I will summon a few giant eagles to fly you back to the tower and others to fly everyone else to Mickey's Castle."

Everyone walked towards Vanessa's general direction, but I looked over to Mother Earth. She looked back at me.

_Keep those fun-loving eyes of yours open, and I will see you again. Not for a long while, but I will see you again,_ said Mother Earth, in my mind. Nobody else could hear her, or if they could, they didn't respond. _No, they can't hear me. Go with your friends. Live and go to school in Mickey's castle. Play with your sister; learn all that you can from today's experiences. Then you marry yourself that pretty little heroine. I will come to the wedding, but good-bye for now, my boy._

I looked up at the sky and saw the giant eagles flying in. They landed and everyone climbed on one, three per eagle. I was with Mom and Bitsy. Vanessa was with Rapunzel and Giselle. Hiccup went with Merida and his mom, and Pitch, Thimble and Madison all rode together.

When we got back to the tower, Vanessa told everyone the story of what had happened. When Snow asked where the potion of ultimate healing was, Vanessa got even paler, if that's possible.

"I gave it to Derek and never got it back," said Vanessa. "Now it's gone forever!"

The way she said it made us all laugh. Mickey led us back to his castle and we were welcomed back with joy from the people of the village. Josey ran forward and hugged Vanessa and me. We decided that we wanted her to live in the castle with us. Her older sister Lotte was the head maid in the castle, and immediately thanked us for allowing Josey to live in the court.

For ten years, we all dutifully attended school, graduated, and then went through university. Merida, Vanessa, Hiccup, Rapunzel and I all looked strange standing there holding diplomas in a group of people who we grew up with that all looked twenty. We still looked fourteen.

Giselle did get her wish to travel the world. Vanessa got to be principal of the school. Bitsy, Vanessa and I were still extremely close. She also remained close with Rapunzel and Merida. They all still shared a room, even after school was over for us. Mickey gave a strange announcement. After Vanessa and I were married, we were to become the new king and queen, and that the kingdom was to be renamed Frosteria, in honor of us.

It was a great deal. We planned the wedding together, and, three days before it was to happen…Well, maybe I should just let Vanessa explain, in our next adventure. Our non-adventurous adventure. Jack, out!


End file.
